REPORT 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES 



FOR THE 



FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1899. 



I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the operations of the 

 United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries for the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1899, with appendices describing its special investi- 

 gations and researches. Attention may be briefly drawn to the more 

 salient features of the work of the year, detailed descriptions of which 

 may be found in the accompanying reports of the different divisions of 

 the Commission. First, however, a summary review of the status of the 

 most important branches of the fisheries will be given. 



GENERAL CONDITION OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY. 



Through its agents and correspondents in every part of the United 

 States, the Commission keeps in touch with the leading commercial 

 fishing interests of the coast and interior; and inasmuch as its prin- 

 cipal work is directed to the maintenance and improvement of these 

 fisheries, by artificial propagation, by the publication of information 

 showing the status and trend of the fisheries, by indicating to the fish- 

 ing interests the means of developing the industry through improved 

 apparatus and methods, and by pointing out the necessary measures 

 for conserving the fishery resources, it is proper that the condition 

 of the leading branches of the industry during the year 1899 be noticed 

 in this report of the Commission's operations. 



The approximate value of the commercial fisheries of the United 

 States in 1891) was $40,000,000, of which the great ocean and coastal 

 fisheries yielded $27,400,000, the river fisheries $8,600,000, and the 

 Great Lakes and other interior fisheries $4,000,000. The fisheries for 

 those species the supply of which the Commission is increasing by 

 artificial means have a value of about $11,600,000. Owing to the 

 recent decline in certain of the ocean and shore fisheries, more especially 

 the fur-seal, whale, mackerel, and lobster, the aggregate value of our 

 fisheries is about 10 or 11 per cent less than during the later years of 

 the last decade and the early part of the present decade, when the 

 maximum seems to have been attained. 



Our leading fishery product, the oyster, worth about $14,000,000 

 annually, is readily susceptible of increase by methods of cultivation, 

 and each season shows a larger proportion of the marketable output 

 taken from planted grounds, thus insuring a permanent and increasing 

 supply. Some of the States which have vital interests at stake are 



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