8 MARINE PRODUCTS OF COMMERCE 



Newfoundland and Labrador offer one of the best modern examples of a 

 people living from one resource— fish. Fish products, chiefly dried and frozen cod, 

 constitute about eight-ninths of their exports. There is a little iron mining, lumber- 

 ing, and paper making, but a large proportion of the workers are engaged, either 

 directly or indirectly, in the fisheries. The climate is too cold and damp for much 

 farming. British Columbia produces nearly half the Canadian total of fish products. 



Variety of Products 



Fish. Fish are marvelously abundant. Thousands of species exist whose names 

 are known only to the systematist. It has been estimated that there are more than 

 19,000 different species, some of which are as numerous as the menhaden, a billion 

 pounds of which are caught each year along the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. 

 The herring fisheries of the North Sea have yielded enormous quantities for 

 more than a thousand years and still yield more than two billion annually. 



Fish are utilized principally as food for man. Statistics indicating the value of 

 the annual catch are presented in Chapter 12. In addition to being eaten fresh they 

 are preserved by freezing, canning, salting, pickling, smoking, and even ferment- 

 ing. Nonedible fish are made into oil, fertilizer, and meal. Fish and fish liver oils 

 find many commercial applications. Hydrogenated or hardened fish oil is largely 

 used for soap manufacture. The swim bladders of certain fish are made into isin- 

 glass. Cod, cusk, hake, pollock, and haddock skins and waste are utilized for glue 

 manufacture. The skins of shark and a few other fish are tanned into excellent 

 leather. Herring, shad, alewife and the scales of other fishes are used in pearl 

 essence manufacture. 



Shellfish. Shellfish are utilized to an extent scarcely appreciated by many people. 

 In the United States the annual product of these fisheries constitutes approximately 

 one-third of the total value of all the fisheries. The oyster industry yields, in addi- 

 tion to about $26,000,000 worth of a nutritious food product, several million 

 dollars' worth of poultry grit, lime, and fertilizer. The fresh-water mussel industries 

 produce pearl buttons and other useful ornaments valued at over $8,000,000. Our 

 clam, scallop, and abalone fisheries are also fair sized industries. There appears 

 to be an unfounded prejudice against the edible qualities of sea mussels. An in- 

 dustry greater than that of the oyster fishery might be developed if Americans, 

 like Europeans, would eat this shellfish. 



The annual production of the world's pearl and pearl shell industries exceeds 

 $100,000,000. The Australian fisheries are of particular importance. Pearls have 

 great value, a single strand occasionally bringing half a million dollars. 



Crustacea. Lobsters, crabs, and shrimp are now widely esteemed as edible. 

 Eighty years ago the blue crab was almost unknowii as an article of food. Its rise 

 to importance has been rapid, over 100 million pounds now being taken annually. 

 Lobsters have been so much in demand that their numbers have seriously dimin- 

 ished. The Atlantic Coast of Canada remains the only large producer. Within the 

 last decade frozen shrimp has become very popular in the United States, resulting 

 in a sudden expansion of this fishery. 



Seal Fur and Leather. The demand for beautiful fur encouraged the pelagic 

 sealers to search every known rookery for these valuable aquatic mammals, until 

 they were nearly exterminated. In 1912 an international agreement between 

 Japan, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States ended pelagic sealing and 



