62 American Fisheries Society 



well and with more modern methods of cultivation will 

 ultimately prove a very profitable industry. Heretofore 

 it has been a rare occurrence for the transplanted eastern 

 oyster to breed on this coast, but in August last Prof. 

 Trevor Kincaid, of the University of Washington, who 

 has been engaged in making an investigation of the 

 oyster fisheries of the state of Washington for the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries, discovered in Willapa Harbor four 

 generations which have grown and thrived from the spat 

 of the eastern oyster. The importance of this discovery 

 will be patent when I state that heretofore our growers 

 have had to import eastern oysters in the seed and 

 depend upon their growth alone for their profit. A plant 

 for the canning of mussels was established on the north- 

 ern California coast last spring, and is one of the first 

 in the country to be put to this use. 



An idea of the vastness of the Pacific fishing industry 

 may be gained when I state that the census report of 

 1908 (the last government report containing full data of 

 the fisheries of the United States) places the Pacific 

 coast division, exclusive of Alaska, second only to the 

 Atlantic coast division in almost every particular so far 

 as persons employed and the various items of investment 

 are concerned, while in the matter of quantity of prod- 

 ucts prepared the Pacific coast division leads all the 

 others, although second to the Atlantic coast division in 

 the total value of products as they leave the hands of the 

 fishermen. Had the fisheries of Alaska been included in 

 the investigation the Pacific coast fisheries would have 

 led all sections in everything except, possibly, in value 

 of products prepared. 



The little table below shows the value of the principal 

 fishery products prepared on this cost, exclusive of Can- 

 ada, during the calendar year 1913. With the exception 

 of halibut, products sold fresh or in the shell are not in- 

 cluded, and the best estimate I have been enabled to ob- 

 tain of these indicates a value of about $2,500,000, 

 making the gross value of all the fishery products pre- 

 pared on this coast in 1913, over $41,000,000. During 



