178 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



To the vessel catch should be added 892 seals taken off the Northwest 

 coast by Indian canoes. The only Canadian vessel sealing in Asiatic 

 waters took 699 seals, but a fleet of 11 Japanese vessels secured 7,308 

 seals from the Asiatic herd. One American vessel obtained 336 seals 

 from the American herd in waters south of the award area. 



NOTES ON THE FISHERIES. 

 THE WHALE FISHERY. 



The vessels engaged in whaling during the year 1899 numbered 48, 

 3 additional vessels having been lost; 22 vessels were employed in 

 the Pacific Ocean and 26 in the Atlantic. The yield of the whale 

 fishery for the year amounted to 11,903 barrels of sperm oil, valued 

 at $583,274; 3,827 barrels of whale oil, valued at $133,945, and 320,100 

 pounds of whalebone, valued at 1864,270. 



CARP. 



Investigations of the fisheries of the Great Lakes and the Missis- 

 sippi and its tributaries, now being made by field agents of this divi- 

 sion, reveal the fact that an important quantity of carp is finding its 

 way into the fish markets — chiefly those of the larger Eastern cities. 



The catch of carp in Lake Erie in 1899 amounted to 3,633,679 

 pounds, valued at 151,456. The report of the Illinois Fishermen's 

 Association shows that the catch of carp in the Illinois River is 

 greater than that of all other species combined, the quantity of carp 

 taken in 1899 amounting to 6,332,990 pounds, valued at $189,980. 

 The yield of carp from the Ohio River and two of its tributaries, the 

 Cumberland and Wabash Rivers, during the same year, amounted to 

 113,387 pounds, worth $6,654. 



These figures show an increase in the quantity of carp derived from 

 the above-named waters amounting to nearly nine times the quantity 

 yielded six years ago. During the same period the total fisherj" prod- 

 ucts of Lake Erie increased more than 15,000,000 pounds and those of 

 the Illinois River more than 5,000,000 pounds. There are, therefore, 

 no indications that the presence of the carp has produced any injuri- 

 ous effect on the native species associated with it, but, on the contrary, 

 its presence may have a salutary effect, the young of the carp doubt- 

 less being food for black bass and other species. It is certain that the 

 black bass has increased in the Illinois River along with the carp, the 

 yield of black bass in 1899 being greater than ever before, amounting 

 to over 70,000 pounds: The last canvass of the fisheries of the Middle 

 Atlantic States, made in 1897, shows the yield of carp from the coastal 

 waters of these States to have been 1,333,263 pounds, valued at 1 

 $63,567, whereas in 1891 the catch amounted to only 46,798 pounds, 

 worth $1,715. More than half of the catch of carp in this region in i 

 1897 was made in New Jersey, most of the" fish being taken in partly v 

 brackish water. Complete returns respecting the interior waters now i 

 being investigated will probably show that the carp is entering largely | 

 into the food supply of the country. 



