CHAPTER II 



Fishery Products in Everyday Life 

 Early Importance of Marine Products 



ONLY a few of the myriads of plants and ani- 

 mals found in the ocean are utilized by man. 

 Some products of the sea, however, such as 

 fish, oysters, and many other shell-fish, have been 

 made use of by man since the earliest times. The first 

 articles bartered by savage men included amber, 

 coral, salt, fish, and shell-fish. Wampum, or strings 

 of shell beads, were used as money by many tribes 

 of North American Indians. 



The ancients even extracted their most important 

 dye from a shell-fish. This dye, now known as Tyrian 

 purple, was obtained by an extremely laborious 

 process and consequently was very expensive. It 

 was so costly that it could be afforded only by the 

 very wealthy; and so originated the phrase, "born 

 to the purple." 



We have no records to show when man first sailed 

 the ocean, but doubtless fishing was his object. 

 Fishing fleets have often grown into great merchant 

 marines. Such was the origin of the fleets of the 

 Phenicians and the early Greeks. When Attila the 

 Hun swooped down on Italy and sacked the cities 

 on the northern shore of the Adriatic, the people 



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