170 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
FOREWORD 
This report constitutes a summary of the activities of the Division 
of Fishery Industries, as well as a review of the fishery statistics col- 
lected by the Division during the past year. As its name indicates, 
this Division of the Bureau is concerned with the activities and wel- 
fare of the commercial fisheries and fishery industries and the fisher- 
men and shoresmen engaged therein; the fish canning and preserving 
industries; and the trade in fishery products. Its functions include 
the conduct of studies or activities: (1) To determine the extent and 
magnitude of our aquatic resources and the commercial importance 
of our fishery industries; (2) to learn the economic condition of fisher- 
men and shoresmen engaged i in the fishery industry, their place in the 
national economy, and what measures can be taken to improve their 
well-being; (3) to determine the character, utility, and effectiveness 
of different forms of fishing apparatus and vessels, suggest Improve- 
ments therein, and discourage the use of those forms which are unnec- 
essarily destructive or unprofitable; (4) to learn the effect of fishing 
on the supply of fish and suggest measures to promote orderly and 
sustained production; (5) to study and develop fisheries for hitherto 
unutilized fishes; (6) to investigate the preservation of fishery prod- 
ucts, suggest improved methods, and discourage wasteful practices in 
this field; (7) to ascertain what use can be made of aquatic products 
not now utilized to economic advantage; (8) to inquire into the 
nutritive value of aquatic foods for man and his domestic animals, 
and promote the consumption of these foods; (9) to ascertain the 
means and methods of transporting fishery products on land and sea 
and recommend economical practices; (10) to inquire into the condition 
and extent of the wholesale and retail trade in fishery products and 
promote the more orderly marketing of our fishery harvest; (11) to 
introduce useful foreign methods or processes of capture, preservation, 
utilization, or marketing fishery products; (12) to handle matters 
relative to the administration of the act which authorizes cooperative 
associations of producers of aquatic products; and (13) to conduct the 
fishery market news service authorized by act of Congress in 1937. 
Results of the various technological, economic, and marketing 
investigations carried on by the Division are published in Separate 
documents as each project is completed, and a brief résumé of each 
current project is contained in this report. Information obtained 
from statistical surveys is published in part 2 of this report, which 
includes all the detailed statistical information that has become avail- 
able since issuance of the previous report ? together with such sum- 
marized statements and interpretations of the statistics as are deemed 
significant and useful. 
Part 1. OPERATIONS OF THE DIVISION 
COOPERATION WITH OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES 
It has been the established policy of the Bureau of Fisheries and of 
this Division to cooperate with other Federal agencies wherever the 
activities are such that mutual information can be exchanged with 
advantage or where, by working cooperatively, the results of such 
2 Fishery Industries of the United States, 1937, by R. H. Fiedler: Appendix III to the Report of the 
. S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1938, pp. 151-460. 
