FISHERIES, BY STATES. 



229 



The following tabular statement shows the changes 

 in the quantity and value of the yield since 1880: 



1 Not reported. 



Blue pike. — The catch of blue pike, which ranked 

 first among the fish proper, was taken wholly on Lake 

 Erie, and contributed 41 per cent to the value of the 

 product from this district. The yield in 1908 was 

 larger than that in any previous year since 1890 and 

 its value greater than that reported for any previous 

 year. The following tabular statement presents the 

 statistics for 1890 and succeeding canvasses: 



Lake Tierring. — The lake-herring product contrib- 

 uted 18 per cent of the value of all fishery products 

 reported for the state and 39 per cent of that reported 

 for the Lake Erie district. Wit'h the exception of a 

 fractional percentage, the entire quantity was taken 

 by gill nets. Of the value of the Lake Erie catch, 92 

 per cent was credited to vessel fisheries. The catch of 

 this fish has decreased rapidly in quantity since 1899, 

 in which year 10,742,000 pounds were taken. The 

 following statement, which gives the quantity and 

 value reported for certain earlier years, shows that the 

 highest value was reached in 1903: 



Sea bass— This species, the value of which amounted 

 to 9 per cent of the value of all the fishery products of 

 the state, was, like oysters, taken only in the Delaware 

 River and Bay district, where it contributed 17 per 

 cent of the value of the catch. The entire quantity 

 was taken with lines in the vessel fisheries and repre- 

 sented nearly 20 per cent of the value of the catch made 

 by vessel fisheries of the Delaware River and Bay dis- 

 trict. No sea-bass product was reported in 1904, but at 



previous canvasses the yields were as large as, or larger 

 than, that of 1908, although of somewhat smaller 

 value. The changes in the catch are indicated in the 

 following tabular statement : 



Shad. — This fish was taken in both the Delaware 

 River and Bay district and the Susquehanna River 

 district, 53 per cent of the total value for the state 

 being credited to the former. Of the total product of 

 fish proper, this species formed 1 1 per cent in the state, 

 73 per cent in the Susquehanna River district, and 26 

 per cent in the Delaware River and Bay fisheries. 

 Seines and gill nets were the principal forms of appara- 

 tus of capture used in the shad fisheries of the Delaware 

 River and Bay district, seines taking about two-thirds 

 of the catch; in the Susquehanna River fisheries, 

 though these two forms of apparatus were used, dip 

 and bow nets were used much more extensively. 



The following tabular statement shows that there 

 has been a marked decline in the product of this 

 species since 1890, interrupted only in 1897, when the 

 catch was of greater weight though of less value than 

 in 1892: 



Whitefish. — The value of the whitefish catch formed 

 7 per cent of the value of the total state product and 

 16 per cent of that of the Lake Erie product. The 

 vessel fisheries of Lake Erie took, by means of gill nets, 

 products valued at 92 per cent of the total value for 

 whitefish. Though greater than the catch in 1903, 

 the quantity taken in 1908 was much less than that 

 reported in any year previous to 1903, while, as the 

 following tabular statement shows, the value in 1908 

 was practically the same as that in 1880 and that in 

 1890: 



