218 



FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1908. 



Ohio River district after 1894 was due in a large meas- 

 ure to laws restricting fishermen to the use of hooks 

 and lines in interior waters. 



Persons employed. — Over 92 per cent of the persons 

 engaged in fisheries in Ohio were employed in the 

 Lake Erie district. Of the 36 shoresmen reported, 



25 were engaged in the vessel fisheries and 11 in the 

 shore and boat fisheries. Including shoresmen, there- 

 fore, the total number of persons connected with the 

 vessel fisheries was 287 and the total number con- 

 nected with the shore and boat fisheries 1,739. 



The distribution of persons employed was as follows : 



1 Exclusive of 22 proprietors not fishing. 



3 Includes provisions furnished to the value of 89,300. 



» Of these, 25 were employed in vessel fisheries and 11 in shore and boat fisheries. 



Equipment and other cajntal. — The following tabular 

 statement shows the distribution of the capital invested 

 in the fisheries of the state : 



Over 99 per cent of the total investment pertained 

 to the Lake Erie district. 



Of the value of shore and accessory property, 

 $62,000 was reported for vessel fisheries and $201,000 

 for shore and boat fisheries. The entire amount re- 

 turned under this head, with the exception of $700, 

 represented investment in the Lake Erie fisheries. 



The vessels reported were exclusively steam craft, 

 and of the boats only 28, valued at $2,400, were sail- 

 boats. With the exception of 136 rowboats, all of the 

 boats, as well as all of the vessels, were used in the 

 Lake Erie fisheries. The number and tonnage of the 

 vessels and the number of the boats were as follows : 



The numbers of the principal kinds of apparatus 

 reported for the state, of which all except 10 seines 

 and 262 fyke and hoop nets were used in the Lake 

 Erie district and all except 18,828 gill nets in the shore 

 and boat fisheries, were as follows : 



Fyke and hoop nets 1, 226 



Gill nets 25,030 



Harpoons, spears, etc 83 



Pound and trap nets 2, 580 



Seines 266 



Trammel nets 521 



Traps, muskrat 2, 645 



Turtle nets 220 



Products, by species. — Table 1, on page 220, gives 

 detailed statistics as to the products of the fisheries of 

 Ohio, by species and by apparatus of capture. On 

 the basis of value, lake herring was the most important 

 fish taken, with German carp ranking second. If the 

 different varieties of pike and pickerel and pike perch 

 be considered together as one item, this class of fish 

 takes the lead among the products, with a total weight 

 of 9.743.000 pounds and a value of $359,000. The 



