CLXXVIII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



shows that the fears entertained for the preservation of this fishery are 

 well grounded. Notwithstanding the largely diminished output, the 

 value of the catch has not only not decreased, but has increased about 

 $75,000. 



According to the reports of the Maine fish commissioners, lobsters in 

 that State are being rapidly caught up, the reasons assigned being an 

 increased demand and evasions of the law consisting of the sale, can- 

 ning, and pickling of short lobsters and the sale of egg-bearing lobsters. 

 The report of the commissioner of sea. and shore fisheries for 1891-92 

 says: 



The conclusion [of fisLorraeu, dealers, and smack men] isunaniinous tliattbelolister 

 is being ra])idly exterminated along. the coast of Maine. Many Jishcinicn go so far as 

 to ass(^rt that unless measures are at once taken to prevent such wanton waste, it 

 will speedily happen that none of these delicious crustaceans will remain to betaken 

 by anyone. 



The decrease in the lobster catch in Massachusetts between 1889 and 

 1892 was 176,402 pounds, while the value of the yield increased $57,146. 

 The conditions in this State appear to be more favorable than inlMaine. 

 Although the year 1891 showed a decreased catch of 319,338 lobsters 

 as compared with 1890, it was coincident with the withdrawal of 52 

 fishermen and 4,100 traps from the fishery, according to the returns 

 made to the State authorities; and the average catch per trap in 1891 

 was a little over 1 per cent greater than in 1890. 



In New Hampshire, Ehode Island, and Connecticut there has been 

 an increase in the lobster catch, largely owing to increased attention 

 to the fishery because of the higher prices commanded. The returns 

 for the three Middle Atlantic States having a lobster fltshery indicate a 

 decrease in the abundance of the lobsters; the diminution in the catch, 

 while actually slight, is important in view of the relatively small output 

 in these States. 



THE OYSTER FISHERY. 



The oyster is the most valuable fishery product of the United States. 

 The gross value of the fishery in 1891 was about $15,000,000. It is five 

 times as valuable as the next important product, the salmon, and equals 

 the combined value of the catch of cod, haddock, halibut, mackerel, 

 menhaden, shad, alewives, herring, salmon, whales, lobsters, shrimps, 

 and clams. It is additionally important in that it is the most generally 

 distributed of our fishery objects, occurring in commercial abundance 

 in every State (except Maine and New Hampshire), having a frontage 

 on salt water. It is not especially remarkable, therefore, that the oyster 

 should receive great attention, and that, with the large increase of pop- 

 ulation in the coast States and the improved facilities for shipping it 

 into the interior in recent years, the question of the maintenance and 

 increaseof the supply should be kept prominent. At a comparatively 

 early date some of the principal oyster-producing States began to appre- 



