352 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ANIMALS 



on an average, between 30 and 80 pounds of honey during a season. 

 It is estimated from twenty millions to thirty miUions of dollars' 

 worth of honey and wax are produced each year in this country. 



Fish as Food. — Fish are used as food the world over. The 

 present value of the yearly catch of the world is estimated at 

 $750,000,000. From very early times herring were caught by the 

 Norsemen. Fresh-water fish, such as whitefish, perch, pickerel, 



pike, and the various members of the 

 trout family, are esteemed food and, es- 

 pecially in the Great Lake region, form 

 important fisheries. But by far the 

 most important food fishes are those 

 which are taken in salt water. Here we 

 have two types of fisheries : those where 

 the fish come up a river to spawn, as the 

 salmon, sturgeon, or shad, and those 

 where the fish are taken on their feeding 

 grounds in the open ocean. Herring are 

 the world' s most important catch, though 

 not in this country. The salmon of our 

 western coast are taken to the value of 

 over $40,000,000 a year. Cod fishing 

 also forms an important industry ; over 

 7000 men being employed and over $30,000,000 of codfish being 

 taken each year in this country. 



Hundreds of other species of fish are used as food, the fish that 

 is nearest at hand being often the cheapest and best. Why, for 

 example, is the flounder cheap in the New York markets ? 



Amphibia and Reptiles as Food. — Frogs' legs are esteemed a 

 delicacy. Certain reptiles, as the iguana, a Mexican lizard, are 

 used as food by people of other nations. Many of the edible sea- 

 water turtles are of large size, the leatherback and the green turtle 

 often weighing six hundred to seven hundred pounds each. The 

 flesh of the green turtle and of the diamond-back terrapin, an animal 

 found in the salt marshes along our southeastern coast, is highly 

 esteemed as food. Unfortunately for the preservation of the 

 species, these animals are usually taken during the breeding season 

 when they go to sandy beaches to lay their eggs. 



Photographed by Dr. 

 John A. Sampson. 



Salmon leaping a waterfall 

 on the way to their spawning 

 beds. 



