386 A HISTORY OF FISHES 



within one hundred fathoms. The principal fisheries of the 

 world lie in the North Temperate Zone, for the most part 

 between the latitudes of 40° and 70° N., regions in which there 

 are great areas of water less than two hundred fathoms in 

 depth, forming the grounds inhabited by the valuable demersal 

 or bottom-living fishes on which the trawUng industries depend. 

 As an example of this concentration of the fisheries in northern 

 seas it may be mentioned that those of Great Britain, France, 

 Spain, Norway, Russia, Canada, the United States, and Japan 

 together represent no less than 70 per cent, of the total yield 

 of the fisheries of the world, and the total catch of these 

 countries represents approximately 12,000,000,000 lbs. A visit 

 to any fish market in the tropics will reveal the fact that in 

 warmer seas the number of edible species of fish is far greater 

 than in northern latitudes, but there are, as a rule, fewer great 

 concentrations of individuals of any one species, and, at the 

 same time, the areas of water of a depth of less than two hundred 

 fathoms are of far less extent. In certain provinces of India 

 attempts have been made in recent years to develop the sea 

 fisheries, and these are actively exploited in Ceylon and Malaya, 

 but it is the inland fisheries which are of greatest economic 

 importance in these countries. Some idea of the huge numbers 

 of individuals of certain species in northern climes may be gained 

 by considering such a fish as the Herring, perhaps the most 

 important of all food-fishes. It has been estimated that a single 

 shoal of Herrings may contain anything up to 3,000,000,000 

 individuals, and there must be scores of these shoals scattered 

 through the Atlantic and North Sea. To take yet another 

 example, about 300,000,000 or 400,000,000 Cod are beHeved 

 to be caught annually in the Atlantic alone, but this must 

 be but a minute fraction of the total number of Cod in existence 

 at a given time. 



It is wellnigh impossible to quote any figures to give an 

 adequate conception of the magnitude of all the great sea 

 fisheries of the world, for it is only in certain countries that 

 exact statistics are collected and published. An American 

 authority has estimated the total value of the catches of marine 

 and fresh-water fishes throughout the world, including fishery 

 products, to be about $800,000,000 per annum, say about 

 j(^ 1 60,000,000, but this is probably far too conservative, and 

 the actual figure may be very much greater. The fisheries of 

 Japan are the most valuable, and their total value is believed 

 to be at least ^(^30,500,000 per annum, while the industry 



