REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CLIX 



THE FISHERIES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES. 



The fishery canvass of Pennsylvauia, Delaware, Maryland, and Vir- 

 ginia having been completed in advance of the other States of the 

 Middle Atlantic region, a condensed statement respecting their fisheries 

 in 1897 was prepared and distributed as Statistical Bulletin No. 11. 



There were employed in the fisheries of New York 7,143 persons; in 

 those of New Jersey, 12,404; Pennsylvania, 1,898; Delaware, 2,392; 

 Maryland, 42,812, and Virginia, 28,277. The fisheries of Pennsylvania 

 in the present canvass include, however, only those of the Delaware 

 and Susquehanna rivers. 



The total investment in the fisheries of all these States was 

 $15,188,614. The total number of vessels employed was 3,874, valued 

 with their outfits at $4,167,469. 



Gill nets were the inost extensively used among the different forms 

 of apparatus, with the exception of oyster tongs, 26,242 being the total 

 number. 



The total number of pound and trap nets was 2,491, valued at 

 $499,115. 



In respect to products of tlie fisheries, Maryland leads, the value 

 being $3,617,306. The fishery products of New Jersey were worth 

 $3,614,434; thoseof New York, $3,391,595; those of Virginia, $3,167,863; 

 those of Pennsylvania, $269,507, and those of Delaware, $252,123. The 

 products of the fisheries of all these States amounted to 593,992,516 

 pounds, valued at $14,312,828. 



Taking these States as a whole, the oyster fishery leads all others in 

 importance, being valued at $8,866,829. The shad fishery ranks next, 

 with a value of $980,748. The products of the clam fishery were valued 

 at $937,872. Other important fisheries are for blue-fish and menhaden, 

 the former being worth $581,560 and the latter $473,359. 



The value of the fisheries in general for 1897 when comi)ared with 

 that for 1891 — the year of the last preceding investigation— shows a 

 decrease of $4,710,646, due chiefly to a falling off" in the oyster industry 

 in Maryland, Virginia, and New York, but principally in Maryland. 



There has been an important increase in the yield of the shad fishery 

 in general, accompanied by a noticeable decrease in value. Virginia is 

 the only State in which an increase in value is shown. 



In the menhaden fishery there is shown an increase in the yield and 

 a decrease in value. 



The sturgeon fishery has decreased somewhat in yield, while the valne 

 has materially increased. 



