246 



FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1908. 



Persons employed. The following tabular statement 

 gives the distribution of the persons employed in the 

 fisheries of Texas in 1908, and of the wages and sal- 

 aries paid: 



' Exclusive of two proprietors not fishing. 



* Includes provisions furnished to the value of $41,000. 



Includes three persons employed on a vessel engaged in transporting. 



Of the shoresmen, 37 were employed in the vessel 

 fisheries and the remaining 23 in the shore and boat 

 fisheries. The total number of persons connected 

 with the vessel fisheries, therefore, was 444, and the 

 total number connected with the shore and boat fish- 

 eries 1,336. It is apparent that hi the shore and boat 

 fisheries more than one-half of those classed as ' ' Pro- 

 prietors and independent fishermen" were independent 

 fishermen. 



Equipment and other capital. In the following tab- 

 ular statement statistics are given as to the equipment 

 and the other capital employed in the fisheries of 

 Texas : 



shore and boat fisheries, while practically all the cash 

 was reported for the vessel fisheries. The total invest- 

 ment in the shore and boat fisheries was $155,000, and 

 that in the vessel fisheries $299,000. Nets and seines 

 were the most important form of apparatus. The 

 numbers of the more important lands of apparatus 

 reported, all of which, with the exception of 38 seines, 

 were used in the shore and boat fisheries, were as fol- 

 lows: 



Cast nets '.... 332 



Dip nets 69 



Firearms, guns, etc 137 



Fyke nets 455 



Gill nets 219 



Mink traps 30 



Seines 298 



Trammel nets 19 



Turtle nets 1 



Products, by species. Table 1, on page 249, gives the 

 fishery products of the state, by species and by appa- 

 ratus of capture. A large variety of species are 

 represented in the catch of this state, chief among 

 which are oysters, red snapper, squeteague, and chan- 

 nel bass, or redfish. These products together con- 

 tributed 75 per cent of the value of all fishery products 

 taken in the state, oysters alone representing 38 per 

 cent of the value. The only species in tfye catch of 

 which Texas led all other states was jewfish. 



Products, by class of fisheries. Table 2, on page 250, 

 gives the products of the vessel fisheries, by species 

 and by apparatus of capture, while Table 3, on page 

 250, gives similar statistics for the shore and boat 

 fisheries. The following tabular statement gives the 

 distribution, by species, of the total value of products 

 for the fisheries of the state as a whole and for each 

 class of fisheries. Only products for which a total 

 value hi excess of $5,000 was reported are shown 

 separately. 



The vessel fisheries took products which represented 

 36 per cent of the value and a slightly larger percent- 

 age of the weight of the total fishery product. The 

 red snapper ranked first in value among the products 

 of the vessel fisheries, its value forming 49 per cent 



