Wheeler. — Commercial Fisheries. 209 



run of fish the fishermen are busy catching fish and tending gear; 

 they have no time for marketing advantageously; they ship 

 everything to commission houses and take chances as to 

 whether they get something or nothing for their product. The 

 result of this method is that invariably the fisherman gets little 

 or nothing for his large consignments and but a fair price for 

 his small catches. In actual figures it can be shown that on May 

 16, 1921, the return for 45 barrels of weakfish was $69.27, or a 

 little less than four-fifths of a cent a pound ; that on the same 

 day weakfish were wholesaling in New York at 18 cents a pound 

 and retailing in Connecticut towns for 25 cents and 28 cents; 

 that on July 29, 16 barrels of weakfish brought a net return of 

 "sold for expenses," and that on that same day weakfish were 

 bringing 18 cents and 20 cents wholesale in New York ; that on 

 August 1, 30 barrels of butterfish and weakfish brought $97.26 

 in New York, and that on the same day in New York 30 barrels 

 of these fish brought over $1,000 and were retailing in Connecti- 

 cut for 25 cents and 28 cents per pound. 



Many similar instances might be cited, but what's the use? 

 If the commercial fishermen will continue to ship their fish to 

 the commercial fish monger and gamble on the returns they are 

 to get, they cannot blame anybody but themselves if they get 

 "stung." 



It might be well for them to study the advisability of form- 

 ing an exchange big enough to operate their own cold storage 

 plants, and market their product through the exchange. It is a 

 good gamble that they would get more for their fish and that the 

 consumer would get better prices which would tend to create a 

 better demand. 



Summing up it can be said that the real panacea needed to 

 resuscitate our commercial fisheries is the elimination of pollu- 

 tion from our streams, the designation and protection of spawn- 

 ing areas, and conservative fishing laws. The matter of better 

 marketing methods will be solved by the fishermen eventually, 

 as it was by the fruit growers and others. 



