IV REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES 



and tunalike fishes and oysters decreased in quantity but increased in 

 value; and canned shrimp alone increased in quantity and also com- 

 manded a higher price. 



The production of menhaden fish meal and oil suffered a decrease 

 of about 50 per cent and a similar decrease in value, but other fish- 

 meal production increased 36 per cent, due largely to increased ac- 

 tivity in the sardine industry of California. The value of the latter 

 increased only 9 per cent. The production of fish oils other than 

 menhaden increased 35 per cent in quantity, and the prices were 

 slightly better in general than those of 1923. The total production of 

 canned products decreased 0.4 per cent in value and the total produc- 

 tion of by-products decreased 18.4 per cent in value. In general, the 

 production of fishery products in 1924 increased in quantity but 

 commanded lower prices than in 1923, so much lower in some in- 

 stances that the value was less even though the total volume was 

 greater. This would seem to indicate that the present need of the 

 fisheries is to develop a greater market to absorb the product. 



It is gratifying to note that the industry is giving greater at- 

 tention to the production of better quality fresh fish, and that a 

 definite effort is being made by the fish trades, through fisheries as- 

 sociations, to raise the standards of quality and apprise the public 

 of the value of fish as a regular source of protein in the diet. 



The bureau's most direct contact with the fisheries and fishery 

 industries is through its division of fishery industries, which during 

 the fiscal year 1925 has continued to aid the industries by collecting, 

 compiling, and publishing statistics of the fisheries, technical re- 

 search, and the dissemination of practical information. 



Statistics of the landings of fish at the ports of Boston and 

 Gloucester, Mass., Portland, Me., and Seattle, Wash., were collected 

 and published monthly. Data on the cold-storage holdings of fish, 

 which are collected by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics in the 

 Department of Agriculture, were published monthly by the Bureau 

 of Fisheries, as in previous years. Statistics on the canned fishery 

 products and by-products for the calendar year 1924 were collected 

 and published in 1925, and the production, holdings, and consump- 

 tion of animal and vegetable oils in the fishery industries were tabu- 

 lated quarterly and furnished to the Bureau of the Census for pub- 

 lication as in previous years. The shad fishery of the Potomac River 

 was canvassed for the 1925 season, and general fishery canvasses were 

 made of the South Atlantic and Gulf States for the calendar year 

 1923. Statistics of the former have been compiled and published, 

 and those of the latter are now in course of preparation for publica- 

 tion. Statistics of the fisheries of the Pacific coast for 1922, col- 

 lected during 1924, were published, and another less detailed canvass 

 Avas made for the calendar year 1923. A statistical bulletin sum- 

 marizing the most recent statistics on all of the geographical sections 

 also was published. Although the data on many of the sections 

 apply to different years, the summary is useful in establishing ap- 

 proximate totals of the annual fishery production in the United 

 States and Alaska. 



As the fisheries of the United States are, for the most part, 

 approaching the limits of exploitation, and as many of our more 

 important littoral fisheries are actuallj^ seriously depleted, it is 

 becoming very important that we have more complete information 



