INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



The accompauyiug statistical report on the fislieries of the South 

 Atlantic States is based ou investigations made by agents of the United 

 States Fish Commission in 1898, the information relating to the year 

 1897. The general results of this work were made public in the report 

 of the Division of Fisheries for 1898, and were also presented earlier 

 and in more condensed form in Statistical Bulletin No. 9. Single sheet 

 statistical bulletins are usually issued upon the completion of field 

 work, and distributed in the fishery region to which they refer, in 

 advance of the regular reports of the Commission. The information 

 collected during this canvass is here presented in full, the results 

 having been tabulated and the various features of the fisheries shown 

 in detail. 



The report has been i^repared under the direction of Mr. C. H. Town- 

 send, assistant in charge of the Division of Fisheries. The field inqui- 

 ries were conducted by Messrs. W. A. Wilcox, T. M. Cogswell, and 

 John N. Cobb, agents of the division, to whom should be credited the 

 explanatory notes relating to the States in which they worked. The 

 fisheries of North Carolina were canvassed by Messrs. Cogswell and 

 Cobb; those of South Carolina and Georgia by Mr. Wilcox, and of 

 eastern Florida by Mr. Cobb. 



The assistant in charge has had the constant aid of Mr. S. Le li. 

 Pritchard and other members of the oflBce force of the division in the 

 j)reparation of the tables. 



Geo. M. Bowers, 



Commissioner. 

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