FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1933 



resiiltctl in decreased activities in connection with the collection of 

 primary statistical data. Those lessoned activities are \ni fortunate 

 since annual catch liiruros are necessary for the study of depletion of 

 fishery resources. Furthermore, statistical analysis of economic 

 phases of the industry are especially urgent at this time when such 

 data are essential to administrative a<z:encies concerned with planning 

 and control, as well as to the industry itself. 



COLLECTION OF STATISTICS 



The statistical work in 1933, as in former years, included the collec- 

 tion and dissemination of statistics on the catch of fishery })roducts 

 and the operating units employed in making the catch, and, in addi- 

 tion, certain statistics of related fishery industries. In the former 

 group are statistics that are intended for the use of the fishery biol- 

 ogist 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 purposes. These included statistics of canned 

 fishery products and by-products of the United States and Alaska, 

 cold storage holdings of fish and amounts of fish frozen, marine-animal 

 oil production, and similar statistics. 



The Division continued its plan of making annual general statisti- 

 cal surveys of the fisheries of the various geographical sections in 1933, 

 and under the direction of F. F. Johnson, surveyed the commercial 

 fisheries of our entire coastal and lake regions obtaining catch figures 

 for 1932. Continuous annual catch figures are now available for the 

 Great Lakes from 1913, Pacific Coast States from 1922, South At- 

 landc and Gulf States from 1927, New England States from 1928, and 

 the Middle Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay States from 1929. That 

 portion of the general statistical surveys relating to the wholesale 

 trade, except for the production of canned, frozen, and packaged fishery 

 products and fishery by-products which is obtained in special surveys, 

 was omitted from the surveys made in 1933 due to curtailment in 

 funds and personnel. 



In addition to the general catch statistics, the collection and/or 

 publication of statistics on special subjects for the year 1933, was con- 

 tinued during the year, as follows: The landings of fish by American 

 fishing vessels at the ports of Boston and Gloucester, Mass., Port- 

 land, Maine, and Seattle, Wash, (published monthly); landings of 

 halibut at North Pacific coast ports (published monthly); catch of 

 mackerel in the North Atlantic fishery ; cold-storage holdings of frozen 

 and cured fish and amount of fish frozen, which are furnished by the 

 Bureau of Agricultural Economics (published monthly); production, 

 consumption, and holdings of nuirino-animal oils of the United States 

 and Alaska (published quarterly by the Bureau of the Census); pro- 

 duction of canned fishery products and by-products of the United 

 States and Alaska; transactions on the sponge exchange at Tarpon 

 Springs, Fla.; volume of fishery products handled at the municipal 

 fish wharf and market, Washington, D.C.; and the volume of the 

 United States foreign trade in fishery products, furnished by the 

 Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. 



