16* REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHRRIES. 



NOTICE OF ARTICLES RELATIVE TO THE SEA-FISHERIES PUBLISHED IN 



THE APPENDIX. 



Altlioiigli tlie Fnited States are not so exclusively occupied witli the 

 fislieries as are Norway, Kewfomulland, and some other countries, yet, 

 in view of the extent to which the population along the sea-coast and on 

 the lakes is at present engaged in the prosecution of this industry, and 

 considering the enormous aggregate of capital invested and the mate- 

 rial results, it is surprising that so little has been done, either by the 

 governments, general and State, or by individuals, in placing the theory 

 and practice of matters connected mth our fisheries on a methodical and 

 systematic basis. 



Most nations, with the exception of the United States, have the nec- 

 essary machinery for obtaining statistics of resultsT ]^rway, however, 

 is the only nation that has a scientific commission oijcupied officially in 

 the sui3ervisiou of the fisheries, and in devising methods by which they 

 may be carried on and extended with the least possible waste. To the 

 labors and observation of such men as Dr. Boeck, Professor Sars, and 

 others is due much of the present efliciency of the Norwegian fisheries. 



The Uuited States Fish Commission now proposes, as far as the means 

 are furnished by Congress, to do what it can to place the American fish- 

 eries on a proper footing, and to make such observations and suggestions 

 from time to time as may appear to be desirable. With this view it has 

 gathered models of the apparatus used by other nations in its fisheries, 

 some of which embrace features that may be reproduced by the fisher- 

 men of the United States to very great advantage. 



The fisheries display of the Commission at the Centennial was a first 

 step in this direction, and it is luoposed to make this as ('omi)lete as pos- 

 sible in the reproduction of the exhibition on a much larger scale, when- 

 ever Congress furnishes the necessary accommodations. 



For the purpose of bringing to the notice of persons in the United States 

 interested the methods and general plans adopted by foreign fisheries, 

 and especially so far as they are novel to our people, 1 have taken much 

 pains to obtain official information of other nations ; and as this relates 

 for the most part to the experience of Scandinavian countries, I have had 

 translated a number of interesting statements and statistical accounts, 

 some of which have been presented in earlier reports, and others will be 

 found in the Appendix to the present volume. 



The extent to which this information has hitherto been lodced up by 

 the medium in which it has appeared, will be shown from the fact that 

 quite recently Prof. Milne Edwards, an eminent naturalist of France, in 

 publishing an article ui)on the fisheries of Norway and Sweden, acknowl- 

 edged his indebtedness to the reports of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion as containing the only accessible rendering of this important in- 

 formation. 



Of all the European fisheries with which the United States is related 

 that of tlie Lofibdeu Islands off the northwestern portion of Norway is 



