REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 1B 
tomed to visit this place, and it is evident that the new laboratory 
will attract many workers and prove of great benefit in promoting a 
knowledge of the fauna of the South Atlantic coast waters. 
The evident desire of Congress to establish a biological station on 
the Gulf coast, as the Commission has recommended, has led to an 
examination of the entire region for the purpose of determining the 
physical, climatic, and faunal advantages of the various sites which 
have been suggested. 
A number of inquiries having pertinency to work of this division or 
to the fisheries of the United States were made by the assistant in 
charge in several European countries. Among these was the sardine 
industry of France, on which a special report has been issued. 
STATISTICAL INQUIRIES. 
It is not possible, with the comparatively small force available for 
the purpose, to canvass the entire country in one year, and the dif- 
ferent regions are therefore taken up in turn, three or four years being 
necessary to investigate all of our fisheries. During the past fiscal 
year investigations have been made on the Great Lakes, the Mississippi 
River and tributaries, and the Pacific Coast States. The statistics 
which follow, in the report of the division of statistics and methods 
of the fisheries (pp. 141-166), refer to the calendar year 1899, and much 
of the information has already been published in advance bulletins. 
Some miscellaneous field work was also done relating to minor 
interior waters of Texas, Utah, and Nevada, where an amount of 
fishing is carried on which is of considerable local importance. ‘There 
have also been included studies of some of the more important or 
specially interesting fisheries, such as those of Boston and Glouces- 
ter, the sponge fishery of Florida, the lobster fishery, ete. Although 
the work is principally statistical, information is gathered respecting 
the methods employed, and intimate relations are maintained with all 
of the fishing and fish-dealing firms, whose interest in the work is 
revealed by the constant applications for information. Not only the 
commercial value of the fisheries, but the results of fish-culture, are 
shown by the statistics, as it is found that millions of pounds of fish 
are taken annually from waters artificially stocked in which such 
species did not previously exist. 
Besides the usual monthly bulletins covering the principal fishery 
products landed at Boston and Gloucester, five special bulletins con- 
taining advance information have been issued during the year. 
At Boston and Gloucester there have been landed during the calen- 
dar year 1900, 162,218,900 pounds of products, valued at $4,385,000, a 
decrease of 14,555,000 pounds from the previous year, but an increase 
of $191,450 in value. Boston shows an increase both in quantity and 
value, while in Gloucester there was a falling off in quantity. 
The mackerel fishery for 1900, amounting to 87,967 barrels, was 
larger than for any year except 1888 since the marked decline of this 
