FISHERIES OF THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. 345 



GENERAL STATISTICS. 



In 1898 14,363 persons were employed in the coast fisheries of Mas- 

 sachusetts — on vessels fishing, 6,962; on A^essels transporting fishery 

 products, 14; in the shore or boat fisheries, 3,365; and as shoresmen 

 in the various branches of fishery industry, 4,022. 



The vessels engaged in fishing and transporting numbered 637, worth 

 $1,776,025. Their net tonnage was 30,558 tons, and the value of their 

 outfits $939,772. The number of boats used in the shore fisheries was 

 2,625, valued at $178,082. The apparatus of capture, consisting of 

 seines, gill nets, pound nets, trap nets, fyke nets, drag nets, dip nets, 

 hand and trawl lines, lobster and eel pots, harpoons, dredges, tongs, 

 rakes, and various minor apparatus, was valued at $556,525. Of this 

 amount $337,082 belong to the vessel and $219,443 to shore fisheries. 

 This is exclusive of harpoons, guns, and other means of capture used 

 in the whale fisheries, the value of which is included in the outfits of 

 vessels. The shore and accessory property employed in the fisheries 

 and fishery industries was valued at $5,125,248, and the cash capital 

 amounted to $4,797,250, the total investment being $13,372,902. 



The products of the fisheries aggregated 202,257,817 pounds, valued 

 at $4,463,727. About 70 per cent of this quantity and nearl}^ 50 per 

 cent of the value were comprised of the five principal species obtained 

 in the cod fisheries. These, combining the fresh and the salted of 

 each species, were cod, 71,314,978 pounds, $1,407,039; cusk, 5,954,036 

 pounds, $63,514; haddock, 35,581,514 pounds, $419,818; hake, 

 21,331,816 pounds, $163,634; and pollock, 7,084,037 pounds, $43,045; 

 the five species totalizing 141,266,381 pounds, and having a value of 

 $2,097,050. Other important species, with the quantity and value of 

 fresh and salted, were halibut, 10,523,297 pounds, $547,440; mackerel, 

 6,703,364 pounds, $361,864; herring, 22,363,497 pounds, $332,547; 

 sword-fish, 597,186 pounds, $35,280, and alewives, fresh, salted, and 

 smoked, 2,535,201 pounds, $31,288. The principal species disposed of 

 wholly in a fresh condition were blue-fish, 832,849 pounds, $38,089; 

 eels, 425,846 pounds, $17,635; flounders, 1,168,876 pounds, $14,793; 

 menhaden, 1,497,367 pounds, $10,544; scup, 1,043,625 pounds, $14,253, 

 and squeteague, 1,371,910 pounds, $39,518. Lobsters yielded 1,693,741 

 pounds, worth $147,702. The more important mollusks were oysters, 

 101,225 bushels, $156,235; clams, hard and soft, 210,912 bushels, 

 $153,318, and scallops, 145,919 bushels, $94,971. The yield of the 

 whale fisheries, consisting of whale, sperm, and sea-elephant oil, and 

 whalebone, was valued at $285,688. 



A comparison of the statistics for 1898 with those for 1889 shows 

 that there has been a decrease of 2,875 in the number of persons 

 employed. The decrease in the number of vessel fishermen is 3,875, 

 and in shore or boat fishermen, 383. This has been partly offset by 

 an increase of 1,383 in the number of shoresmen. 



The vessels have decreased 199, or nearly 24 per cent, in number, 



