Present Status and Future Prospects. Fis 
fourteen vessels, and Provincetown, three vessels. Of 
the whole fleet, there were twenty-five steamers and 
barks, three brigs and fourteen schooners. With the 
exception of five schooners hailing from San Francisco, 
practically all the brigs and schooners, that is the smaller 
vessels, are employed in the sperm whale fisheryof the 
Atlantic Ocean. The steamers and barks, on the other 
hand, are engaged chiefly in the North Pacific and the 
Arctic fishery. 
The imports of whale products in 1905 show a falling off 
from previous years. The imports of sperm oil, 12,985 
barrels, reached the lowest figure since 1899; whale oil, 
1,755 barrels, touched the lowest figure since 1815, with 
the single exception of 1903, and whalebone, 79,900 
pounds, again excepting 1903, went lower than in any 
other year since 1827. In other words, the vessel and 
tonnage figures would suggest a slight revival of whaling 
during the last few years, the figures of imports last year 
indicate about the lowest condition of the fishery for 
nearly a century. 
The prices on whale products also fell, six cents per 
gallon on sperm oil, five cents on whale oil, and ninety 
cents a pound on whalebone. Hence the smaller imports 
had a still smaller relative value as compared with the 
two or three years immediately previous. It seems, 
therefore, that in spite of a slight increase in the fleet 
tonnage, the whaling industry has not yet reached its 
lowest ebb, at least as far as oils are concerned. The 
merchants, however, apparently have faith in an advance 
of price, for many of them are holding much of their 
stocks rather than sell at the prevailing low prices. 
The imports of oil and bone are made chiefly at New 
Bedford and at San Francisco. The Atlantic fleet of 
sperm whalers makes New Bedford its port, though small 
amounts of both sperm and whale oil are occasionally 
entered at New York and Boston. The San Francisco 
imports are chiefly of whalebone from the right whale 
