6 FISHERIES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES. 



GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE STATISTICS. 



Persons employed. — The number of persons employed in the fisheries 

 of the Middle Atlantic States in 1904 was 83,103, of whom 62,361 were 

 fishermen in the vessel and shore fisheries, and 20,742 were shoresmen 

 in the wholesale fishery trade and shore industries related to the fish- 

 eries. Maryland employed in its fisheries 30,337 persons; Virginia, 

 28,868; New York, 11,493; New Jersey, 9,094; Delaware, 1,899, and 

 Pennsylvania, 1,412. In comparison with their returns for 1901, the 

 year for which the last previous canvass was made, all the states of 

 this region show a decrease in the number of persons employed in the 

 fisheries. The largest decreases were in Maryland, 5,923 ; in New 

 Jersey, 2,936, and in Pennsylvania, 1,072. The aggregate decrease 

 was 10,558. 



Investment. — The total amount of capital invested was $26,673,521. 

 In New York the investment was $10,621,616; in Maryland, $5,983,- 

 465; in Virginia, $4,614,934; in New Jersey, $2,685,796; in Penn- 

 sylvania, $2,097,715, and in Delaware, $669,995. Compared with 

 1901, the investment has increased $1,593,150, or 6.35 per cent. 

 There has been an increase of $1,177,345 in New York, $12,798 in 

 Delaware, and $981,830 in Virginia, but a decrease in each of the 

 other three states. The investment included 3,583 fishing and 

 transporting vessels, valued at $4,285,243 and having a net tonnage 

 of 54,540 tons and outfits valued at $1,146,958; 32,760 boats in the 

 shore fisheries, valued at $1,876,356; fishing apparatus used by 

 vessels and boats to the value of $1,656,954; shore and accessory 

 property valued at $9,373,710; and cash capital amounting to 

 $8,334,300. The forms of fishing apparatus having the largest 

 aggregate value were pound nets, trap nets, and weirs, $749,207; 

 dredges, tongs, rakes, etc., $302,007; gill nets, $237,613; seines, 

 $204,236; fyke nets, $84,864, and lines, $23,594. 



Products. — The products of the fisheries amounted to 811,857,062 

 pounds, having a value to the fishermen of $18,963,976. Of this out- 

 put New York produced 277,649,747 pounds, valued at $6,230,558; 

 New Jersey, 90,108,068 pounds, valued at $3,385,415; Pennsylvania, 

 2,046,294 pounds, valued at $167,499; Delaware, 5,608,289 pounds, 

 valued at $259,590; Maryland, 81,128,866 pounds, valued at $3,336,- 

 560, and Virginia, 355,315,798 pounds, valued at $5,584,354. The 

 most important product of the fisheries of these states is the oyster, 

 the yield of which was 17,866,673 bushels, valued at $11,547,629. 

 Next in value was the menhaden, the catch being 511,777,571 

 pounds, valued at $1,338,621. Menhaden represented 63 per cent of 

 the total quantity, and oysters 60 per cent of the total value of the 

 products. The yield of hard and soft clams aggregated 822,575 



