252 



FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1908. 



Of the total number of persons employed, 78 per 

 cent were engaged in the shore and boat fisheries and 

 22 per cent in the vessel fisheries and on transporting 

 vessels. In the vessel fisheries about 80 per cent, and 

 in the shore and boat fisheries about 40 per cent, of the 

 persons employed were wage-earners, the proportion 

 of proprietors and independent fishermen being smaller 

 than in most other states. About 87 per cent of all 

 persons reported were connected with the fisheries of 

 the Chesapeake Bay district, while the remaining 13 

 per cent were engaged in the fisheries along the Atlan- 

 tic coast. 



Equipment and other capital. The following tabular 

 statement gives the value of equipment and the 

 amount of other capital invested in 1908, for the state 

 and for each district : 



About 90 per cent of the total investment is credited 

 to the Chesapeake Bay district. The investment in 

 vessels, including outfits and boats, represented 69 

 per cent, that in apparatus of capture 16 per cent, 

 and that in shore and accessory property, together 

 with the cash capital reported, 15 per cent, of the 

 total investment for the state. 



By far the larger number of fishing and transport- 

 ing vessels were sailing craft, and were employed in 

 the Chesapeake Bay district. Only 120 vessels out 

 of the total of 946 were engaged in fishing and trans- 

 porting, and only 1,984 boats out of the total of 10,942 

 were connected with the fisheries of the Atlantic 

 Ocean district. The other vessels and boats, number- 

 ing 826 and 8,958, respectively, were employed in the 

 fisheries of Chesapeake Bay and its tributary waters. 

 While sailing vessels greatly outnumbered steam and 

 motor vessels in the Chesapeake Bay district, the 

 latter class of craft had a value more than twice that 

 of the former and a tonnage almost half as great. 

 In the Atlantic Ocean district, however, the sailing 



vessels represented a greater value than the steam 

 and motor vessels, and their total tonnage was more 

 than seven times that of the steam and motor vessels. 

 The following tabular statement gives detailed sta- 

 tistics concerning the number and tonnage of vessels 

 and the number of boats: 



The apparatus of capture reported for the shore 

 and boat fisheries of Virginia largely exceeded in value 

 that reported for the vessel fisheries, the investment 

 in the former case being $428,000 and in the latter 

 $56,000. The capital represented by this form of 

 investment in the Atlantic Ocean district was only 

 $51,000, or 11 per cent of the total investment in 

 apparatus of capture for the state. The number of 

 pound nets used was 1,908 and the number of seines 

 360. The latter were used in both vessel and shore 

 and boat fisheries and in both of the districts into 

 which the fishing grounds of the state are divided. 

 The number of gill nets reported was 7,513. Because 

 dredges are considered injurious to the oyster beds, 

 their use in the public areas is restricted by law. 

 They were therefore used comparatively little and 

 often only to clean up the grounds which had pre- 

 viously been worked by tongs. The distribution 

 of the more important kinds of apparatus of capture 

 is shown in the following table: 



