342 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
This section is imleuted l>y three l)ays, which are among tlie largest on the coast 
of the United States and are extremely important in connection nith the fisheries; 
these are New York Bay (with its several tributary bays), Delaware Bay, and Chesa- 
l»eake Bay, which have a combined area of about 3,720 square miles. Into these 
bodies of water all the important rivers of the region drain; these are the Hudson, 
Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, Baiipahannock, and James. 
Scope and aims of the report . — The inquiry on which this report is based disclosed 
no very marked changes in the methods of conducting the fisheries of this region since 
the x)ublication of the very full discussion of the subject in the Fisheries and Fishery 
Industries of the United States, relating ])rimarily to the years 1870 and ISSO. The 
chief puri)ose of this paper, therefore, is to show the condition and extent of the in- 
dustry by means of detailed statistics. Noteworthy changes in methods of fishing, 
abundance of species, etc., will be referred to in the explanatory text for each State. 
The imper is based on field investigations carried on during the fiscal years 1891, 
1892, and 1893 by the agents of the division of statistics and methods of the fisheries of 
this Commission. The information has been obtained by the personal inquiries of the 
agents, and the statistics reiiresent actual records of fishermen, fish dealers, and 
transportation agencies whenever such records were available. The statistical canvass 
was addressed principally to the calendar years 1889, 1890, and 1891, and the figures 
for New York, Maryland, and Virginia in the accompanying tables relate to those 
years; but owing to the lateness of the field inquiries in New Jersey, Delaware, and 
Pennsylvania it was possible to secure data for those States for the year 1892.* 
The investigations of the river fisheries of this region were carried as far up the 
streams as commercial fishing existed. Thus the Hudson Eiver was canvassed to 
Stillwater, N. Y. ; the Delaware to Shawnee, N. J.; the Susquehanna to Columbia, 
Pa.; the Potomac to Washington, 1). C.; the Eappahaunock to Port Eoyal, Ya.; the 
James to Eichmond, Va. 
Whenever available, records have been consulted in ascertaining the quantity and 
value of the catch, and in the case of a verj- large proportion of the professional fishing 
the figures presented may be regarded as being as nearly correct as it is possible 
to obtain. On the other hand, in the case of the semiprofessional fishing, especially 
that carried on in the upper courses of the rivers, it is the exception to find fishermen 
who keep a record of their catch, and in order to determine the approximate output 
of the various kinds of fishes taken it is often necessary to follow up very slight 
clues. A certain proportion of the fishermen know how much their fish sold for, and 
with this item as a basis the agents can, by judicious questioning, prepare a fairly 
accurate statement of the (luautity of the yield, although the sei)aration of the catch 
into species involves elements of uncertainty which must always render a fishery 
census of these minor fisheries unsatisfactory. 
The statistical matter to be presented consists (1 ) of general condensed tables 
showing by States the extent of the fishing industry in the entire region, (2) of detailed 
tabulations for each State by counties, (3) of a series of statements giving the extent 
of some of the more important fisheries, and (4) of comparative statistics by States for 
1880 and 1891. 
* A paper on the statistics ul the fisheries ol the United States, embracing the region under dis- 
cussion, was presented by the writer to the World's Fisheries Congress, convened at Chicago in October, 
1893, and was published in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission for tlie same year. The figures 
therein contained, which were provisional, will be found to differ in some slight respects from those 
given in the present report, which is to be regarded as final. 
