FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1929 837 



as measured by the United States Customs Service. These made 

 11,882 trips to the fishing grounds, and were absent from port 55,880 

 days, or, on the average, about 4.7 days per trip. Their catches of 

 edible fish landed at the three ports amounted to 329,977,722 pounds 

 when the salted fish had l)een converted to the basis of fresh gutted 

 fish. This does not represent the entire catch of edible fish of these 

 vessels, for small quantities, estimated at not more than 5 per cent 

 of their total catch, were landed at ports in New England, other 

 than these three, at New York City, and at ports in New Jersey. 



The fishing vessels landing fares at these three ports did not always 

 operate the same type of gear throughout the entire year. At one 

 season a certain vessel may be outfitted as a line trawler; at another 

 season as a purse seiner; and at still another season for swordfishing 



180 



Figure 17.— Landings of cod and haddock by fishing vessels at the 

 principal New England ports, 1893 to 1929. (Landings of salted had- 

 dock never reach over 650,000 pounds in any year and therefore have 

 been omitted) 



with harpoons. Thus, vessels may be fished with two or more types 

 of gear during the course of a year. In such a case the vessel is classed 

 with others operating similar gear, while it is fishing that type of gear. 



From the tables it will be noted that the grand total of the number 

 of vessels operated is exclusive of duplication, and that the total 

 number of vessels operating each type of gear also is shown. 



Line trawls. — A line-trawl fishery was prosecuted by 106 vessels in 

 1929. These vessels made 1,824 trips to 23 main fishing grounds, and 

 were absent from port 11,518 days, or an average of about 6.3 days 

 per trip. Their catches aggregated 69,935,942 pounds, or 21 per 

 cent of the total landings by vessels at the three ports. Of this 

 amount, haddock constituted 44 per cent, cod 34 per cent, and hake 

 1 1 per cent. Other species of importance in the catch by line trawls 



