REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 15 



valued at $37,637 ; grass, 84,892 pounds, valued at $20,379 ; and wire, 

 7,585 pounds, valued at $2,588. It is estimated that sponges to the 

 value of $50,000 were sold at Tarpon Springs outside of the exchange. 

 Information as to the quantity sold at Key West is not available but 

 is known to be comparatively small. 



INQUIRY RESPECTING FOOD FISHES AND FISHING GROUNDS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The effect of the gradual development of the fisheries of the United 

 States has borne unequally upon the several resources exploited, 

 parth- as a result of the intensity with which the fisheries have ]jeen 

 prosecuted in relation to the abundance of the original supply, partly 

 owing to peculiarities in the distribution and life histories of the 

 several species, partly as the consequence of ruinous methods of fish- 

 ing or wanton and short-sighted destruction, and partly as an in- 

 evitable sequence of the social, industrial, and commercial develop- 

 ment of the country and the consequent modification of the character 

 of the waters. Certain species like the sturgeon have become almost 

 extinct commercially, the natural oyster beds in some originally 

 richly endowed areas have been depleted or destroyed, the Atlantic 

 salmon has become hardly more than a memory in the United States, 

 the shad runs in almost all streams are sadly reduced, the salmons 

 of the Pacific Coast States and Alaska are no longer able to support 

 the fisheries of former years, and in some places are on the verge of 

 economic extinction, and the halibut banks of the western Atlantic 

 liave been reduced far below their pristine productivity, and those 

 of the north Pacific Ocean are following the same course. 



The resources that have been more particularly afi'ected are those 

 that are fixed to the bottom or have limited powers of locomotion, 

 those that are confined to circumscribed bodies of water, or that run 

 into such waters for spawning or other purposes at certain seasons of 

 the year, or those that mature slowly and are represented by compara- 

 tively few individuals of large size. 



On the other hand, there are many fishes, particularly marine 

 sjDecies, some of them of paramount economic importance, that show 

 no indications of depletion. These are mainly species of wide distri- 

 bution. a])i;ndance, and high reproductive capacity and that at no 

 time congregate in narrow waters where they come under the control 

 of the activities of man as exhibited by fishing operations or obstruc- 

 tion, pollution, or other alteration of their accustomed environment. 

 It does not follow, however, that because no evidences of depletion 

 have been detected it can be assumed certainly in all cases that it has 

 not begun, or that it may not occur as the cumulative result of exist- 

 ing operations and conditions or future developments. 



The correction of existing and the prevention of prospective de- 

 pletion lias been sought principally through the agency of fish culture 

 and legislation more or less restrictive of fishing operations and prac- 

 tices. It is obvious that a foundation for these measures must be 

 established on an accurate and reasonably complete knowledge of the 

 life histories of the organisms with which they deal, as otherwise 

 they may prove wasteful and ineffective while at the same time im- 



65067—23 3 



