98 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



FOREWORD 



This report constitutes a summary of the activities of the division 

 of fishery industries as well as an annual review on fishery statistics of 

 the United States. As its name indicates, this division of the bureau 

 is concerned wdth the activities and welfare of the fishery industries, 

 including the commercial fisheries, the trade in fishery products, and 

 the fish canning and preserving industries. Its functions include the 

 collection and publication of fishery statistics, the conducting of 

 market surveys, the prosecution of research designed to solve the 

 technical problems of the industry, and the dissemination of authorita- 

 tive and practical information to the fishery industries and the public. 

 Results of technological investigations and marketing studies are 

 published in separate documents as each project is completed. The 

 information obtained from statistical surveys is published in part 2 

 of this report, which includes all the detailed statistical information 

 that has become available since the issuance of the previous report,- 

 together with such summarized statements and interpretations of the 

 statistics as are deemed significant and useful. In the preparation of 

 this report, members of the division's staff have taken part and their 

 assistance is appreciatively acknowledged. 



Part 1. OPERATIONS OF THE DIVISION 

 COLLECTION OF STATISTICS 



The statistical work of the division in 1931, as in former years, in- 

 cluded the collection and dissemination of statistics on the catch of 

 fishery products and the gear employed in making the catch, and 

 statistics of related fishery industries. In the former group are sta- 

 tistics that are intended for the use of the fishery biologist, upon which 

 to base conservation measures. They are also valuable for economic 

 purposes. This is especially true of statistics of the landings of fish 

 at principal fishing ports, which are published monthly. In the second 

 group are statistics that are of use mainly for economic or trade pur- 

 poses. These include statistics of the manufactured fishery products 

 and by-products of the United States, cold-storage holdings of fish 

 and amounts of fish frozen in the United States, marine-animal oil 

 production, and similar statistics. 



Continuing with the plan of making annual general statistical 

 surveys of the fisheries of various geographical sections, the division 

 in 1931 under the direction of F. F. Johnson canvassed the fisheries 

 prosecuted in our entire coastal and lake sections, obtaining catch 

 figures for 1930. The fisheries of the Mississippi River and its tribu- 

 taries were not canvassed for 1930, but a survey is now in progress in 

 which figures for 1931 are being obtained. Continuous annual catch 

 figures are now available for the Great Lakes from 1913, Pacific Coast 

 States from 1922, South Atlantic and Gulf States from 1927, New 

 England States from 1928, and the Middle Atlantic and Chesapeake 

 Bay States from 1929. While a complete canvass has not been made 

 for the fisheries of the Mississippi River and tributaries since 1922, 

 annual figures have been obtained on the catch of fresh-water mussels 



' Fishery Industries of the United States, 1930. By R. H. Fiedler, Appendix II to the Report of the 

 V. S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1931, pp. 109-552. 



