REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. IX 



1899 by American fishing vessels was 155,307,808 pounds of fresh and 

 salted fish, valued at $3,525,268, against 128,088,295 pounds, valued at 

 $2,585,010, in the previous year. 



There is unmistakable evidence of an increased abundance of cod 

 in the inshore waters along the entire coast from Maine to Kew Jersey. 

 This may, without hesitation, be attributed principally to the work of 

 artificial propagation centering at the stations of the Commission at 

 Gloucester and Woods Hole. A comparison of the yield of the shore 

 cod fishery in the seven States of the North Atlantic seaboard in which 

 this fishery is carried on shows a marked advance in Maine, Massa- 

 chusetts, Ehode Island, and New Jersey between 1883 and 1898, and 

 a general increase for the region from 28,450,000 pounds, valued at 

 $665,000, in 1888 to over 43,000,000 pounds, worth $934,000, in 1898— 

 50 per cent in quantity and 41 per cent in value. 



The period of unprecedented scarcity of mackerel which began in 

 1886 has continued without intermission to the present time. The 

 catch in 1899 was slightly larger than in the two preceding years, but 

 less than in any other season since 1890. The leading feature of the 

 fishery was the appearance of a large body of mackerel near Cape Cod 

 late in the season, when some good fares were landed. 



The decline in the lobster fishery continues in the centers of greatest 

 production, and has been a subject of much solicitude on the part of 

 the Commission, whose measures taken for increasing the supply are 

 elsewhere referred to. Comparing the present output with the catch 

 in 1880 (the earliest year for which authentic statistics are available), 

 it appears that the yield has decreased 5,500,000 pounds, or 28 per 

 cent. The height of this fishery seems to have been attained about 

 1889, when the catch was nearly 31,000,000 pounds, valued at $860,000. 

 In 1899 the output was under 15,000,000 pounds, but the value was 

 over $1,000,000. It is very important that the work done by the Fish 

 Commission in increasing the lobster supply by artificial propagation 

 be supplemented by the State authorities. While the lobster laws of 

 the various States are commendable in principle, greater uniformity 

 is desired and their more rigid enforcement is urgently demanded. 

 During the past five years over 500,000,000 young lobsters have been 

 artificially hatched by the Commission and planted on the east coast. 

 As practically all the eggs from which these were produced would have 

 been destroyed had not the Commission purchased the egg-bearing 

 adults from the fishermen, it can hardly be doubted that these opera- 

 tions have had a decided influence on the supply, but they have not as 

 yet seemed to arrest the decline, in the face of over-fishing and the 

 destruction of short lobsters and brood lobsters carrying eggs. 



Among the anadromous fishes, the shad and alewives have continued 

 to be abundant along the entire east coast, notwithstanding that the 

 fisheries are making larger and larger inroads each year. The supply 

 of sturgeons is becoming less each season, and in some waters in which 

 the fish formerly abounded practical extermination has occurred. The 



