FISHERIES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES. 
345 
111 order to show the aggregate weight of the products of the fisheries, it has 
been necessary to reduce to the coinnion unit of iiounds certain articles which are not 
ordinarily sold on tliat basis, among these being oysters, clams, scallops, and crabs. 
In the <-.ase of mollusks, the quantities given in the tables represent the weights of 
the edible parts of those animals; thus, with OJ^sters, round clams, long clams, and 
scallops, the weight of the meat and liquor is taken into consideration, while with 
scallops only the “eye” or “heart” is shown. The weights assigned to a bushel of 
each of these shellfish are 7 pounds to oysters, S pounds to round clams, 10 pounds to 
long clams and mussels, and pounds to scallops. The common edible crab is 
regarded as having an average weight of one-third of a iiound; the horseslioe or king- 
crab is rated at 2 pounds. 
JSfature of the fisheries ami fishery resources . — The Middle Atlantic States have 
the distinction of maintaining more valuable fisheries than are carried on in any other 
region of the United States. The fishing population is about as numerous as that in 
all the other coast and lake States combined. The number of vessel fisliermen, of 
shore and boat fishermen, and of factory hands and other shore employes is larger 
than in any other geographical division. 
The aggregate value of the investment in fishing property is less tlian in the New 
England States. This is largely due to the relatively ex[)ensive class of vessels 
employed in the latter region. In the items of seines, fyke nets, oystering ai)paratus, 
number of vessels, and nuudjer of boats, the Middle Atlantic States take first rank. 
The value of the fisheries, which affords the best basis for determining the import- 
ance of file industry, is much greater in this region tlian in any other, being one and 
a half times that of the next prominent section, ISTew England. 
Among especially prominent features of these fisheries are the very large fleet of 
small vessels, chiefly schooner and sloop rigs, engaged in taking oysters ; the extensive 
use of pound nets, fyke nets, gill nets, and seines in the bays and rivers; the numer- 
ous small boats employed for oysters and clams; the employment of steam and sail 
vessels in the capture of menhaden, and the very valuable shore industries dependent 
on the oyster and menhaden fisheries. 
Features of the fishing industry of the Middle Atlantic region wliii^h contrast 
very strongly with that of the geographical section adjoining on the north are the 
general unimportance of tlie food-fish industries carried on with vessels and the 
Xiractical absence of any fishing on the high seas. Only in rSTew York is the use of 
vessels for the caxiture of food-fish imxmrtant, and only in Yew Jersey are the oxier- 
ations of the shore fishermen noticeably extensive on the ocean grounds beyond 
jurisdictional limits. It is estimated that fully 90 |)er cent of the value of the fishery 
Xiroducts of this section is from waters within the control of the States. 
The waters of this region are x>erhax)S more remarkable for the great abundance 
of the imxiortant fishery objects there found than for an esx)ecially large variety of 
desirable fish and other animals, such as is x>resent on the coasts of the Gulf and 
Pacific States. While some seventy fishes of recognized food value occur regidarly 
on the ocean shores, in the bays, or in the rivers of the region, and while the number 
of invertebrate and other aquatic products is not small, the great xirominenee which 
the fishing industry of these States has attained may be said to depend on two 
Xiroducts, namely, the shad and the oyster, which are here more abundant and 
valuable than in all the remainder of the country combined. 
