FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1927 403 



While the bureau's faciHties are not adequate to collect annual 

 statistics for the entire country, fortunately there is another means of 

 accomplishing this end — that is, through cooperation with State 

 agencies. Since early times, the fisheries in State waters have been 

 under State control, and a number of States have included the render- 

 ing of statistical returns as an obligation of commercial fishermen 

 who exploit the State's resources. As reported in 1925 and sub- 

 sequent years, the bureau's policy has been to cooperate with those 

 States that collect statistics m such a manner as to render the data 

 adequate to form the material for studies in fluctuations in abundance 

 and to render the statistics of adjoining States comparable so as to 

 permit compilation over the entire commercial range of species inhab- 

 iting the waters of a number of contiguous States; and to encourage 

 the collection of statistics by those States not at present doing so. 



The results of this policy have been gratifying. By detailing one 

 agent to the Pacific Coast States and employing temporary clerical 

 assistance in that region, annual statistics based on State returns 

 have been compiled and published since 1923. In the Great Lakes 

 region it has been possible to compile State statistics annually since 

 1913. Certain improvements in the method of securing returns on 

 the Great Lakes were necessary to make them adequate, and through 

 several conferences of State officials of that region an agreement prop- 

 erly to revise collections was reached and will be effective for the 

 calendar year 1928. Collection of statistics in the remaining sections 

 of the country is still on the periodical canvass basis. 



During the past year, statistics on the Middle Atlantic States for 

 the calendar year 1926 were collected and published. With the com- 

 pletion of this canvass and the State cooperation above mentioned, 

 the latest statistics available on each geographical section are as 

 follows: New England States, 1924; Middle Atlantic States, 1926; 

 Chesapeake Bay States, 1925; South Atlantic and Gulf States, 1923; 

 Pacific Coast States, 1926; Great Lakes, 1926; Mississippi River and 

 tributaries, 1922. 



In addition to the general statistics, the series of statistics on special 

 subjects was continued during 1927 as follows: The collection and 

 monthly publication of the statistics of the landings of fish by vessels 

 at the ports of Boston and Gloucester, Mass., Portland, Me., and 

 Seattle, Wash., and landings of halibut at North Pacific coast ports, 

 and publication of annual bulletins summarizing these landings for 

 the year; monthly publication of statistics on the cold-storage holdings 

 of frozen and cured fish collected by the Bureau of Agricultin'al 

 Economics, Department of Agriculture; quarterly collection of the 

 statistics of production, consumption, and holdings of oils in the 

 fishery industries for the use of the Bureau of the Census; collection 

 and publication of statistics on the production of canned fishery prod- 

 ucts and by-products by the United States and Alaska for 1927; 

 collection and publication herewith of statistics on the shad and ale- 

 wife fisheries of the Potomac and Hudson Rivers for 1927; the securing 

 and publishing herewith of statistics on the quantity and value of 

 sponges handled by the Tarpon Springs sponge exchange in 1927; the 

 securing and publishing herewith of statistics on the ciuantity of fishery 

 products handled at the municipal fish wharf and market, Washington, 

 D. C, in 1927; the tabulation and publication herewith of statistics 

 obtained by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Depart- 



