484 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



FISHERIES OF DELAWARE. 



Compared with 1897 the fisheries of Delaware in 1901 show a 

 decrease in the number of persons employed and in the value of the 

 product, the number of persons decreasing from 2,392 in 1897 to 1,998 

 in 1901, and the value of the product from $252,123 to $203,372 in the 

 same period. The returns for 1897 differed little from those of 1892 

 and the three j^ears immediately preceding. 



More than half of the decrease occurred in the sturgeon fishery, the 

 output of which in 1897 was valued at $34,750, and in 1901 at $10,444. 

 This decrease occurred notwithstanding the fact that caviar and dressed 

 sturgeon were much higher in price in the latter year, the caviar 

 increasing from 37 to 65 cents per pound, and the dressed sturgeon 

 from less than 5i cents in 1897 to 8i cents per pound in 1901. In 

 1901 this fishery gave employment to 122 men, using 57 boats, worth 

 $5,690, and 37,680 yards of drift gill nets, worth $5,190; the catch 

 was 553 sturgeon, weighing 86,199 pounds, which yielded 10,307 

 pounds of caviar, worth $6,766, and 44,499 pounds of dressed sturgeon, 

 worth $3,678. The sturgeon product of the State is now less than 

 7 per cent in quantity and 35 per cent in value of what it was ten years 

 ago, notwithstanding an increase in the number of boats employed. 

 At Delaware City, one of the principal centers of this fishery, there 

 were 422 kegs of caviar produced in 1895, 244 in 1896, 106 in 1897, 

 54 in 1898, 35 in 1899, 20 in 1900, and only 6 in 1901. 



The yield of shad also shows a large decrease in number, but from 

 the point of view of the fisherman this is more than offset by an 

 increase in the value, the fish averaging $11.09 per hundred in 1897 

 and $15.61 in 1901. More than 90 per cent of the shad in this State 

 are taken by means of drift nets, which are operated principally in 

 Delaware Kiver, especially at Newcastle, Delaware City, and Port 

 Penn, and to a small extent in the headwaters of Nanticoke Eiver. 

 In 1891 this fishery employed 397 men, using 201 boats worth $8,826, 

 and 236 nets worth $16,833, and the catch of shad numbered 394,952. 

 In 1901 the fishermen numbered 443, using 244 boats worth $13,726, 

 and 285 nets worth $13,842, and the catch amounted to 329,750 in 

 number. This represented an average for each man of 995 shad in 

 1891 and only 744 in 1901. 



The oyster business, the most important fishery industry of the 

 State, has changed little during the last ti n years. As in other 

 Middle Atlantic States, there is a steady decrease in the resources of 

 the public reefs of Delaware, with a corresponding increase in private 

 oyster culture. At the present time most of the market oysters 

 obtained from the public reefs are scarcely more than large enough 



