The Bureau of Fisheries 



2 1 I 



YIELD 0F24OFTHE PRINCIPAL FI5HERIES 

 IN 10 MILLIONS 0FP0UND5 



SALMON 



OYSTERS 



COD 



HERRING 



LAKEHERRING 



ALEWIVES 



SHAD 



HAKE 



SQUETEAGUE 



CLAMS 



CRAB5 



BLUEFISH 



HALIBUT 



CARP 



LOBSTERS 



CATFISH 



SUCKERS 



MACKEREL 



SHR.IMP 



FLOUNDERS 



LAKE.TROUT I 



WHITEFISH 



STURGEON 



HADDOCK I 



facts that such an award would never 

 have been made if our government had 

 been in possession of complete and ac- 

 curate statistics of the fisheries involved, 

 such as the Bureau now possesses. 



THE ENORMOUS VALUE OF THE 

 UNITED STATES FISHERIES 



The vast amount of nutritious, whole- 

 some, and delicious food-stuff resulting 

 from the fisheries of the United States is 

 not generally realized. Some conception 

 of it may be had from an examination of 

 the diagrams here shown. 



The total catch of food-fishes in the 

 United States and Alaska, as shown 

 by the last canvass, was 1,733,314,324 

 pounds, valued at $45,531,165. The 

 number of men employed was 214,056 

 and the capital invested was $72 , 261 ,646. 

 The salmon pack of Puget Sound alone 

 in 1 90 1 exceeded four and one-half mil- 

 lions of dollars, an amount more than 

 four times as great as the entire silver 

 output of the whole region drained by 

 the Columbia River. The salmon out- 



put of Alaska for 1903 is valued at 

 $10,000,000, which exceeds by more 

 than two and one-half million dollars the 

 amount which Alaska cost us; and if we 

 add to the salmon the value of the cod, 

 halibut, and other fisheries of Alaska, 

 the total greatly exceeds all the other 

 resources of Alaska combined. 



In the early history of our country, 

 when population was sparse, unaided 

 nature could be depended upon to fur- 

 nish much of the food which man 

 needed, whether fruit, fish, flesh, or 

 fowl. Deer and many other game ani- 

 mals were found in abundance both in 

 the forests and on the plains. Game 

 birds, including the wild turkey, grouse, 

 quail, passenger pigeon, and many spe- 

 cies of water fowl, existed in even greater 

 abundance. Edible wild fruits and ber- 

 ries were found in great profusion, while 

 the waters of the coasts, streams, and 

 inland lakes teemed with delicious food- 

 fishes of many kinds. The pioneers 

 were literally able to live upon the nat- 

 ural products of the country. But popu- 

 lation has vastly increased and, pari 

 passu, the natural products of the coun- 

 try have decreased. Many of them have 

 become extinct or practically so. We 

 can no longer live upon the wild pro- 

 ducts of the country. In place of native 

 game birds we must now depend upon 

 the cultivated turkey and other domesti- 

 cated fowl. In place of the vanishing 

 game animals of forest and plain we now 

 have vast numbers of cattle, sheep, and 

 other domesticated animals. To supply 

 the world's demand for food, fruits and 

 grains, fowls and mammals must be cul- 

 tivated; unaided nature can furnish but 

 a mere trifle of the amount required. 

 The resources of the sea and of the in- 

 land waters have not been so easily ex- 

 hausted as those of the land. Aquatic 

 animals were probably not only more 

 abundant, but they were more difficult 

 to get at, and it was more difficult for 

 man to interfere with the conditions 

 under which they live ; but, though 



