RErORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FTSHERIES. CLXV 



REMARKS ON REPORTS. 



Following is a resume of tlie reports and papers emanating from this 

 division daring the fiscal year 1892. These covered a variety of sub- 

 jects, some general and others special in their scope. Considerable 

 work was also done on a number of other papers dealing with our 

 fishery interests, which will be issued during the next fiscal year. 



In addition to the information which is utilized in the preparation of 

 reports, the office is accumulating a vast amount of descriptive and 

 illustrative matter on apparatus, boats, vessels, fish and other prod- 

 ucts, etc., which will be available when the occasion or opportunity 

 for its utilization arises. While the elaborate studies in the Fish- 

 eries and Fishery Industries of the United States make the necessity 

 for similar descriptive reports a remote contingency, the important 

 subject of fishing apparatus was not treated of in that series, and con- 

 stitutes, among other topics, an inviting field for a report, the material 

 for which is now being gathered. 



Notes on the King-Crab Fishery of Delaware Bay. (Bulletin, 1889, pp. 363-370, 

 3 plates.) 



Although the king crab {Limulus polyphemus) occurs in greater or 

 less abundance along the entire Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to 

 Florida, and in many places is taken in small quantities for fertilizer, 

 etc., it is only in Delaware Bay that the capture of the animal is accom- 

 plished by means of specially devised apparatus and becomes a matter 

 of commercial importance. This paper shows that in 1888 the com- 

 bined catch in New Jersey and Delaware was 1,822,000 crabs, valued 

 at $8,150, of which 1,502,000 crabs, worth $7,510, were taken in New 

 Jersey. Compared with 1880, these figures disclose a very marked 

 decline in the abundance of the crabs, and it seems only a question of 

 a few years, under existing conditions and methods, before the supply 

 will become exhausted. Of late the yearly output has been maintained 

 only by employing larger quantities of apparatus. 



The Giant Scallop Fishery of Maine. (Bulletin, 1889, pp. 313-335, 5 plates, includ- 

 ing map of scallop beds operated in 1889.) 



The coast of Maine is the only region in which fishing for the giant 

 scallop {Pecten magellanicus) is carried on. So far as known, this scal- 

 lop has only a limited distribution in the available waters adjacent to 

 the coast of Maine, and it is only in the section between Mount Desert 

 Island and the Penobscot Eiver and in the Sheepscot Eiver that it has 

 been found by the fishermen. The history of the fishery given in this 

 report shows that it has been of very recent development, no record of 

 its existence more than ten years ago being ascertained. The industry 

 is prosecuted from Mount Desert, Tremont, Little Deer Isle, Sedg- 

 wick, Cape Eosier, Castine, and various towns on the Sheepscot Eiver, 

 and in 1889 the fishery was followed by 197 persons, who had $11,055 

 invested in boats, apparatus, and accessories, and took 45,308 bushels 

 of scallops, for which $18,047 was received. While the fishery has cer- 

 tain natural limitations, it is no doubt capable of increasing cousid- 



