208 EEPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. 



SARDINE CANNING. 



This brancliof the fishing industry is yet in its infancy on the Pacific 

 Coast. The Golden Gate Packing Company, of San Francisco, estab- 

 lished in 1890, had up to 1892 the only sardine cannery on the coast. 

 Sardines and anchovies are utilized. Those of small size vrere packed 

 in oil in the usual quarter-pound cans; the larger fish were put up in 

 round cans holding 1 and 2 pounds. The goods were of fine quality 

 and met with a ready sale, but the quantity prepared was small. A 

 number of causes, chief of which was the failure of sardines to enter 

 San Francisco Bay in sufiicient quantities, limited the pack and caused 

 a suspension of the business in 1893, when the cannery was sold and 

 removed to Los Angeles County, where sardines were reported to be in 

 greater abundance. Of late years sardines have been very erratic in 

 their appearance in San Francisco Bay. One year the fish for weeks 

 at a time would be extremely plentiful, while during the next season 

 they would scarcely be found at all. The quantities of fish packed 

 during the three years 1890, 1891, and 1892 were as follows, 100 of the 

 quarter-pound cans, 48 of the 1-pound cans, and 24 of the 2-pound cans 

 being contained in each case : 



THE FISH TRADE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 



The fresh-fish markets of San Francisco are interesting and in some 

 respects unique. In them one may buy a single pound of fish or a car 

 load, both wholesale and retail business being carried on at the same 

 stand. About 12,000,000 pounds of fresh fish are handled annually, 

 exclusive of those in the Chinese markets. Large quantities of oysters, 

 clams, mussels, shrimj), and crabs are also sold. 



The fish are received daily from the adjacent fishing-grounds Aasited 

 by the home fishermen, and from the interior waters and coast towns hj 

 rail and steamship lines. The fresh and salt waters of the State are 

 rich in quantity and variety of animal life, and fishery products from 

 all over the State find their way to this market. It is said that over 

 275 species of fish are found in the waters of the State, although many 

 of these are not used as food, except by the frugal Chinese, who rarely 

 permit anything to go to waste. 



