REPORT OF THE DIVISION OF STATISTICS AND METHODS 

 OF THE FISHERIES. 



By C. H. Townsend, Assistant in Charije. 



The work of this division for the year euding June 30, 1897, was 

 reported upon by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, whom the writer succeeded as 

 assistant in charge on April 7, 1897, having been detached as naturalist 

 of the steamer Albatross, By direction of the Commissioner a canvass 

 of the principal fisheries of certain New England and Middle Atlantic 

 States and the Great Lakes for the fiscal year 1897 was commenced on 

 August 1. The statistical field agents of the division were detailed as 

 follows: To Maine and New Hampshire, Mr. Ansley Hall; to Massa- 

 chusetts, Mr. W. A. Wilcox ; to New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, 

 Mr. C. H. Stevenson; to Lake Superior, Mr. T. M. Cogswell; to Lakes 

 Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, and Erie, Mr. H. O. Weaver; to Lake 

 Ontario, Mr. John N. Cobb. The fisheries of Lake Ontario were can- 

 vassed in full, the data collected relating to the calendar year 1897. 



With a view to securing information for the use of the National 

 Fishery Congress at Tampa, in January, 1898, Mr. Cobb was sent to 

 Florida in September and October to canvass the fisheries. The results 

 of the fieldwork conducted in the above-mentioned regions were at once 

 made public in a series of single sheet bulletins, each of which was dis- 

 tributed throughout the region to which it referred. The bulletins 

 were sent to post-oflQces, custom-houses, commercial organizations, fishing 

 firms, fishermen, and representative newspapers. The conditions of the 

 fishery industries were thus presented in condensed form in advance of 

 the regular report of the Commissioner. It is proposed to continue, 

 from time to time, the issuing of such bulletins resj^ecting the commercial 

 fisheries whenever the information obtained proves of special interest. 

 The titles of bulletins which have already appeared are as follows : 



Sponge Fisheries of Florida. 



Statistics of Certain Fisheries of Lake Superior. 



Statistics of Certain Fisheries of Florida. 



Statistics of Certain Fisheries of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. 



Statistics of Certain Fisheries of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. 



Statistics of Certain Fisheries of The Great Lakes. 



The information collected regularly by local agents of the division, 

 respecting the important fisheries of Boston and Gloucester, has, since 

 August, 1897, been presented monthly in the form of single sheet 

 bulletins and distributed to persons directly engaged in those fisheries. 

 These bulletins are also posted in public buildings, while several trade 

 journals give them further circulation in their columns. 



