FISHERIES, BY STATES. 



195 



Table 3.— NEW JERSEY— PRODUCTS OF VESSEL FISHERIES: 1908. 



i Includes apparatus, with catch, as follows: Gill nets, 30,000 pounds, valued at 34,400; eel and lobster pots and traps, 15,000 pounds, valued at 31,400; and fyke and 

 hoop nets, 2,000 pounds, valued at 8100. 



2 Less than 3100. 34 r ooo bushels. « 18,000 bushels. « 4,500 bushels. 6 623,000 bushels. ' 871,000 bushels. 



NEW YORK. 



In the value of fishery products New York ranked 

 third in 1908, being surpassed only by Massachusetts 

 and Virginia. The total value of such products was 

 $4,594,000, or 9 per cent of the total for the United 

 States. The chief fishing grounds of the state are Lake 

 Erie, Lake Ontario, the Hudson River, Long Island 

 Sound, and the Atlantic coast region. The first two 

 bodies of water are included in the Great Lakes district, 

 while the remainder constitute the Atlantic coast dis- 

 trict. New York is thus peculiar in having both fresh 

 and salt water fisheries of considerable importance and 

 in having fresh-water fisheries in the two natural divi- 

 sions, the Hudson River being included in the Atlantic 

 coast district. 



A summary of the general statistics of the fisheries 

 of the state for 1908 is given in the following statement : 



Number of persons employed 6, 775 



Capital: 



Vessels and boats, including outfit $2, 058, 000 



Apparatus of capture 362, 000 



Shore and accessory property and cash 1, 413, 000 



Value of products 4 > 594 > 00 ° 



Comparison with previous canvasses. — Prior to the 

 census of 1908 no report covering all of the fisheries of 

 New York had been made for any one year, although 

 statistics of the fisheries of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario 



have been included since 1880 in canvasses of the Great 

 Lakes, and figures for the fisheries of the state along 

 the Atlantic coast have been shown in the reports of 

 the Middle Atlantic states. 



In the next table the principal items from the re- 

 ports on the fisheries of these two districts are given, 

 and composite figures for certain combinations of years 

 are presented as totals for the state . 



The number of persons employed as shoresmen and 

 the investment in shore and accessory property and 

 cash capital are excluded from the next table because, 

 owing to the fact that the reports of the Bureau of 

 Fisheries for certain years included with the above items, 

 respectively, the number of men and the amount of 

 capital employed in the wholesale fishery trade and in 

 shore industries related to the fisheries, the statistics se- 

 cured by that bureau are in these respects not compar- 

 able with the census returns. 



A comparison of the returns for 1908 with those for 

 1903-4 shows large decreases in every branch of the 

 industry, including one of 17 per cent in the total 

 amount invested in vessels, boats, and apparatus of 

 capture, and one of 28 per cent in the value of the 

 products. The figures were in fact higher for 1903-4 

 than for any other canvass, except that the number of 

 vessels was smaller than in 1888-1890 and the quantity 

 of products smaller than in 1880. . 



