46 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



the end of the first 12 months, the known catch was upward of 

 10,250,000 pounds, valued at more than $400,000. During the fiscal 

 year 1917, the landings aggregated 11,641,500 pounds, and the 

 receipts of the fishermen exceeded $477,730. A feature of the fishery 

 in that year was the increased receipts at Boston and the diminished 

 receipts at New York, although New York, at the end of the year, 

 continued to be the chief center of the business. 



The campaign to make an asset out of one of the most destructive 

 and neglected fishes of the Atlantic coast, namely, the spiny dogfish, 

 has progressed rapidly and well, notwithstanding local opposition and 

 a counter campaign of misrepresentation and ridicule among a 

 limited number of people who had become committed to another and 

 impracticable way of combatting the dogfish plague. 



Among the first steps taken by the Bureau was to suggest a change 

 in the name of the fish for trade purposes. The species has been 

 generally known as dogfish, a name which is objectionable because of 

 the prejudice against it and is not distinctive because it is shared by 

 various other little-regarded marine and fresh-water fishes. People 

 in all parts of the country wiH eat catfish but are opposed to dogfish. 

 The name adopted was grayfish, which is descriptive, not preoccupied, 

 and altogether unobjectionable. 



Although the authority and the funds for carrying on tliis work 

 were not granted by Congress until the latter part of June, 1916, 

 midsummer found canners in Maine and Massachusetts making 

 arrangements to pack grayfish, and packing actually began in August 

 under an arrangement made with the Bureau by which the fish was 

 to be prepared in a stipulated manner and sold at a price not to exceed 

 a certain low figure, in return for which the label was permitted to 

 state that the fish was packed in accordance with the recommendation 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries. Another early development was the 

 selling of a hmited quantity of fresh fish in the New York market, 

 with the indication that demand would increase. 



The destructiveness of the grayfish and the extent to which it has 

 interfered with established fisheries have caused the fishermen to look 

 upon it with such aversion that it was only by the exercise of much 

 persuasion that they could be induced to catch the fish or even to 

 bring ashore those caught incidentally with apparatus set for other 

 fishes. An early feature of the campaign was the complete change in 

 the fishermen's attitude after they had become fuUy informed as to 

 the Bureau's plans; and the autumn of 1916 witnessed the extra- 

 ordinary sight of New England fishermen going out especially for 

 grayfish and seUing their catch at remunerative prices for food. 



Although the canneries took all the grayfish they could obtain, 

 when the fish withdrew from New England waters for the winter the 

 season's pack was not as large as desired by the canners or contem- 

 plated by the Bureau in its publicity campaign, and in the marketing 

 of the pack it soon became evident that the demand far sui-passed the 

 supply. Tlie canned fish met with very ready sale, and long before 

 the winter was over the entire pack was disposed of and orders con- 

 tinued to arrive from aU parts of the country. The goods proved to 

 be not only one of the best canned products on the market but also 

 one of the most economical to the consumer, who could buy at retail 

 for 10 cents a can containing 14 ounces net weight of fish. 



