374 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
IMPORTANCE OF THE FISHERIES. 
The investigations by the U. 8S. Fish Commission in 1880 showed that 
the number of men employed in the fisheries of Texas was 601; the 
capital invested, $42,400; and the weight of the fish taken, 3,858,875 
pounds, valued at $128,300. In. 1890 the number of men engaged in the 
fishery industries of the State was 1,277; the value of property em- 
ployed, $315,427, and the weight of the products was 7,961,400 pounds, 
for which the fishermen received $313,912. 
On account of the incomplete transportation facilities, the difficulty 
of preserving fish in a warm climate for a considerable length of time, 
and the generally undeveloped condition of affairs on the coast, the 
fisheries of this State have not heretofore attracted great attention. 
They have been controlled and prosecuted mainly by Mexicans and 
natives of Southern Europe, who were usually unfamiliar with the 
methods in use at other fishing localities in this country. But with the 
improvement and extension of the railroad system of the Southwest, 
the cheapening of ice by manufacture, and the extensive immigration 
which this section of the country is now attracting, the fisheries give 
promise of being at some time classed among the important industries 
of the State. The entire State, together with New Mexico, Colorado, 
Kansas, and a large part of Mexico will be thus benefited by receiving a 
ready and fresh supply of salt-water fish. 
At present ‘bay seining” is the most important fishery in Texas. 
The oyster industry is second in extent, but will doubtless rank first 
within a few years. These two fisheries are prosecuted extensively all 
along the coast. Hach locality also has its own minor fisheries, such 
as the turtle, the shrimp, the crab, the flounder, the surf-seine, the 
cast-net, and the hook-and-line. 
Aside from the surf seines in use on Galveston Island, some hook-and- 
line fishing at different places, and an occasional trip of a harbor boat 
from Galveston to the red-snapper banks, all the fisheries of Texas 
are confined to the bays and their estuaries along the coast. Of the 
7,961,400 pounds of marine products obtained by the fishermen of 
Texas in 1890, the quantity taken from the Gulf proper is estimated at 
less than 300,000 pounds. 
Since 1880 all the Texas fisheries have increased in @xtent excepting 
for shrimps, which are reported as less abundant than they were ten 
years ago. The catch in 1880 was 637,500 pounds, while in 1890_ 
the quantity taken in both the seines and cast nets amounted to only 
179,800 pounds. The oyster and bay-seine fisheries exhibit the great- 
est actual increase in the value of products. 
The growth of the fisheries is due principally to the development of 
the methods of inarketing the catch. The shipping facilities along the 
coast, except at one or two places, have been greatly increased during 
