THE FUTURE OF THE FISHERIES 

 OF THE PACIFIC 



By John N. Cobb, 



Director, College of Fisheries, Universiti/ of Wasliington. 



"Westward the Star of Empire Takes Its Way." — Berkeley 



When the poet wrote the above line, he little recked how 

 soon they would come true, especially in fishery matters. 

 First the Atlantic Coast of North America wrested the fish- 

 ery preeminence from the old world, and for many years our 

 fishing vessels, manned by the hardiest and most daring 

 fishermen the world had seen up to that time, plowed the 

 seas from the ice-bound fastnesses of the Arctic to the even 

 more difficult ones of the Antarctic. 



As time went on, and the shore of the Pacific gradually 

 became peopled with the hardy pioneers of the East and 

 Middle West, including also some of those who had partici- 

 pated in the later stages of the wonderful development of 

 the Atlantic fisheries, and the descendants of others, the in- 

 fant fisheries of the Pacific began to attract attention. 

 Starting with the salmon, our fisheries steadily increased in 

 value and importance until in 1919 they exceeded in value 

 and quantity those of the Atlantic seaboard, and unless all 

 the teachings of history are at fault, they will never again be 

 distanced by that section of our continent. If we are ever 

 to lose our supremacy it will be because the course of empire 

 has continued its way to the westward and the preeminence 

 rests with the Asiatic side of the Pacific. 



Around the shores of the North Pacific are at present to 

 be found the most important commercial fisheries in the 

 world, and also the greatest undeveloped fishery resources 

 of the known world. The Mexican and Central American 

 fisheries on the Pacific have been but slightly developed; 

 there is room for a large expansion of the present fisheries of 

 the Pacific States, Alaska and British Columbia; Siberia's 

 vast fishery resources (both marine and freshwater) have 

 hardly been scratched as yet; the marine resources of Korea 

 and China are largely in an undeveloped state while Japan, 

 one of the leading fishing countries of the globe, is still hold- 

 ing her own. It has been estimated that the fisheries of the 

 sections bordering on the Pacific amounted in value in 1918 

 to $325,665,000. 



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