REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CLWIl 



and 28,867 were shore employes. The aggregate capital invested in 

 the industry was $45,619,546, of Avhicli $1.3,575,240 represented 6,099 

 vessels and their outfits; $3,082,395 was the value of 47,195 boats; 

 $4,557,815 was devoted to apparatus of capture, and $24,404,083 to 

 shore property and working- capital. The products had a value at first 

 hands of $34,234,045, of which $15,323,447 was the result of the general 

 food-fish fisheries, $12,860,671 of the oyster, clam, and scallop fisheries; 

 $1,843,752 of the seal, walrus, and sea-otter fisheries; $1,591,796 of the 

 lobster, crab, shrimp, and prawn fisheries; $1,393,854 of the whale and 

 porpoise fisheries; $798,604 of the menhaden fishery; $254,515 of the 

 sponge fishery, and $167,406 of the alligator, turtle, terrapin, and frog 

 fisheries. The tables making comparisons with 1880 show a generally 

 satisfactory condition of the industry. There was an increase in the 

 number of fishery employes of 18 per cent, an advance in the amount 

 of investment of 27 per cent, and a decrease in the value of products 

 of 1 per cent. The decline in the value of the catch was principally 

 due to a diminished yield of whales and mackerel in the New England 

 States and of oysters in the Middle Atlantic region. A very interest- 

 ing and instructive comparison is made by States and sections of the 

 catch of shad and alewives-. The maintenance of the supply of shad 

 is so important that the report may be appropriately quoted on this 

 subject. It says : 



This comparison lias a special interest, since it may fairly be taken as a basis for 

 estimating tLe effect of artificial propagation of certain species of food-fish which, 

 nnder natural conditions, have become noticeably depleted. It is proper to state 

 that the supply of shad had been so much reduced by overfishing that in the years 

 immediately succeediug 1880 there was reason to fear that the species would soon 

 become so scarce that it would no longer be available as a reasonably cheap article of 

 food or the oljject of a profitable fishery. 



In order to co)uprchend the full siguificauce of this comparison it is well to 

 remember that the artificial propagation of shad on a large scale by the U. S. Fish 

 Commission was not undertaken until 18.S1 ; therefore the effect of it upon the 

 abundance of the species could not be felt or observed wntil 1885, when the artifi- 

 cially hatched fish attained maturity and returned to the rivers for reproductive pur- 

 poses. It will thus be seen that the excess of the catch of 1888 over that of 1880 

 jtractically shows the result attained by artificial propagation of shad in the third 

 season after its elfects could, by natural limitations, be observed; and the very 

 important facts are shown that the yield of the fishery was aluiost double, and that 

 its value, based on prices obtained in 1880_. was increased nearly $700,000. 



It may be admitted that the increased catch has to some degree been due to the 

 use of larger quantities of apparatus, but it is evident that without a marked increase 

 in the abundance of shad, as a result of artificial hatching, the profitable em])loy- 

 meut of additional fishing gear would not be possible. But the fact should not be 

 lost sight of that each year a larger proportion of shad is caught in the bays, estu- 

 aries, and lower reaches of the rivers, where pound nets and other gear have been 

 multiplied to such an extent in recent years as to largely prevent anadromons species 

 from ascending to their natural spawning-grounds in the headwaters of the streams. 

 For this reason the maintenance of the abundance of shad is more dependent now 

 than ever before upon artificial propagation.- 



A comparison of the catch of the shad with that of the alewife for the years named 

 will prove instructive, inasmuch as the latter is not hatched artificially, and these 

 '*necic8 are practically taken in the same waters on the Atlantic coast antl to a largo 



