Vlll LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Since 1865 the fisheries have greatly increased in extent and value, chiefly due to improved 

 methods of preservation of products and means of transportation. 



The fisheries of the New England States are the most important. They engage 37,043 men, 

 2,066 vessels, and 34,787 boats, and yield products to the value of $14,270,393. In this district the 

 principal fishing ports, in order of importance, are : Gloucester, Portland, Boston, Provincetown, 

 and New Bedford, the latter being the center of the whale fishery. New England was settled in 

 1620 by colonists chiefly from the western counties of England, who selected that portion of the 

 coast on account of its peculiar fitness for the prosecution of the fisheries, and by the middle of 

 the seventeenth century there was a considerable fleet of ketches and snows engaged in the cod 

 fishery on the off-shore banks, where especially on the banks of Newfoundland France, Spain. 

 Portugal, and England already had a fleet of several hundred large vessels. Just before the war 

 of the Kevolution New England had 665 vessels and 4,405 men employed in its fisheries. 



Next to New England in importance are the South Atlantic States, employing 52,418 men, 

 3,014 vessels (the majority of which are smalt and engaged iu the shore and bay fisheries), and 

 13,331 boats, and returning products to the value of $9,602,737. 



Next are the Middle States, employing in the coast fisheries 14,981 men, 1,210 vessels, and 8,293 

 boats, with products to the amount of $8,676,579. 



Next are the Pacific States and Territories, with 16,803 men, 56 vessels, and 5,547 boats, with 

 products to the amount of $7,484,750. The fisheries of the great lakes employ 5,050 men, 62 vessels. 

 and 1,594 boats, with products to the amount of $1,784,050. The Gulf States employ 5,131 men, 

 197 vessels, and 1,252 boats, yielding products to the value of $1,227,544. ' 



Forty-three distinct fisheries are recognized by American writers, each being carried on in a 

 special locality and with methods peculiar to itself. Among the most important of these are thw 

 oyster fishery, the off-shore cod fishery, the whale fishery, the fur-seal fishery, the mackerel fishery, 

 the menhaden fishery, the halibut fishery, the'antarctic seal and sea-elephant fishery, the west-coast 

 salmon fishery, the lobster fishery, the shad and alewife fisheries, the swordfish fishery, and the 

 clam fishery. 



The off-shore fisheries are carried on by citizens of the New England and Middle States, and 

 are prosecuted on the great oceanic banks extending from Nantucket to Labrador, and upon the 

 ledges and shoals between these and the coast. 



The great purse-seine fisheries for mackerel and menhaden are carried on north of Cape 

 Hatteras, at distances from the shore varying from 1 mile to 150 miles. The fishing-grounds in 

 the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, formerly frequented by many hundreds of American vessels, have been 

 almost entirely abandoned since the introduction of the purse-seine, and in 1882 only one vessel 

 visited those waters, returning with about 200 barrels of mackerel. The oyster fishery is located 

 for the most part between Cape Hatteras and Cape Cod, chiefly in the great inland bays. In all 

 the great rivers of the Atlantic coast are fisheries for the anadrornous shad and the two species of 

 alewife. About the keys of Southern Florida is an extensive sponge fishery, and on the shoals of 

 the Gulf of Mexico the red-snapper and grouper fisheries are yearly increasing in value. The fur- 

 seal fishery is chiefly located upon the Pribylov islands of Alaska. A small fleet of vessels yearly 

 penetrates to the ice-bound islands of the Antarctic for seal-skins and sea-elephant oil. The whal- 

 ing fleets, with headquarters at New Bedford and San Francisco, frequent all oceans, the larger 

 vessels cruising chiefly iu the North Pacific, while the smaller ones pursue their prey throughout 

 the Atlantic and South Pacific. The salmonfishery is seated upon the Columbia River and its trib- 

 utaries, though other rivers iu Oregon and California produce large quantities of salmon, which is 

 extensively canned and exported. The most valuable product of the great-lake fisheries is the 

 whitefish. The swordfish fishery of Southern New England, though employing but 40 vessels and 

 perhaps 160 men, produces 1,500,000 pounds weight annually. 



The export of American fishery products is comparatively small, owing to the fact that the 

 demand for such products for home consumption is really greater than the supply, and is constantly 

 on the increase. In 1880 the total value of exported fish products amounted to $5,741,580, of 

 which, according to custom-house records, England received $2,601,017. Of the quantity sent 

 to England, $1,596,007 was iu canned preparations, find $303,790 iu fresh oysters, the remainder 



