168 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



STATISTICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



Fishery statistics are collected by the Bureau to serve two principal 

 purposes — biological and economic. For this reason the Bureau 

 must plan its statistical surveys to obtain comprehensive data for 

 furnishing a complete and rehable picture of the condition and trend 

 of the fisheries. The collection and compilation of the great mass of 

 data necessary involves many problems. The fisheries are broad in 

 scope, including over 160 varieties of aquatic products which enter 

 into commercial production. These, many of which are migratory, 

 are taken by a great variety of types of gear in areas along our sea- 

 coast and in our interior lakes and streams. If the biological aspect 

 is to be served, complete annual statistics are needed on each of these 

 phases in every section. If the economic aspect is to be served, 

 statistics are needed not only on the phases listed above relative to 

 the biological aspect, but also on the price structure, the processing 

 function, and on marketing and distributing. 



Statistics on these latter phases of the industry should be collected 

 and published as soon as possible after the close of the business trans- 

 actions in order to be of maximum value to the industry and others 

 interested in the fisheries. However, because of limited funds and 

 personnel it has not been possible to collect and publish these figures 

 as currently as desired. For the same reason it has not been possible 

 to collect statistics on the fisheries of the entire United States on an 

 annual basis. 



BIOLOGICAL ASPECT 



The biologial aspect must consider two problems — the conservation 

 and sustained supply of the resource, and the prediction of future 

 trends or yields. Since the fisheries are usually prosecuted in areas 

 not under private ownership, the problem of the conservation of these 

 fisheries is of national concern. It, therefore, is important that close 

 watch be kept of the condition of the various fisheries to detect 

 depletion so that remedial measures can be promulgated timely and 

 wisely. For this reason it is imperative that current statistical data 

 be obtained on the yield of our fisheries. 



These statistics then furnish the biologist with the background upon 

 which to base his prediction of future trends and yields. This he does 

 by coupling the statistical data with studies of the life history of the 

 species. Difficulty is experienced in making these predictions because 

 the supply (or population) of the species cannot be seen, as is the case 

 with farm animals or crops. The more complete and more reliable 

 the statistics on yield are, the better foundation the biologist has for 

 conducting his studies. The Bureau, therefore, aims to obtain a com- 

 plete picture of each individual fishery to further these biological 

 studies. 



ECONOMIC ASPECT 



When the fishery has been conserved, and trends and yields of the 

 fishery have been predicted, the problem still remains of supplying 

 the fishery trade with the information so essential to the conduct of 

 its business activities. In these days of increased competition the 

 very existence of the fishery industry must depend upon reliable 

 economic and statistical information. Such material has been 

 especially valuable during the past few years, when it has been used 



