THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ANIMALS 201 



the eastern coast aggregate nearly $1,000,000 a year. The dredging for 

 scallops, another molluscan delicacy, forms an important industry along 

 certain parts of the eastern coast. 



Fish as Food. — Fish are used as food the world over. From 

 very early times the herring were pursued by the Norsemen. 

 Fresh-water fish, such as 

 whitefish, perch, pickerel, 

 pike, and the various mem- 

 bers of the trout family, are 

 esteemed food and, espe- 

 cially in the Great I^ake 

 region, form important fish- 

 eries. But by far the most 

 important food fishes are 

 those which ^re taken in 

 salt water. Here we have 

 two types of fisheries, those 



where the fish comes up Salmon leaping a fall on their way to their 

 a river to spawn, as the spawning beds. (Photographed by Dr. 



John A. Sampson.) 



salmon, sturgeon, or shad, 



and those in which fishes are taken on their feeding grounds in 

 the open ocean. Herring are the world's most important catch, 

 though not in this country. Here the salmon of the western 



m*- 



^ 



"S2S 



Globe P'isheries. 



