320 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
NEW YORK. 
In the value of its fyke-net fishery, New York ranks before any other State, sur- 
passing Maryland, the next important State, by about ten thousand dollars’ worth of 
products. In the waters of the State tributary to the Atlantic Ocean, however, the 
extent of the fishery is less than in Maryland. 
The physical features of this State naturally fall for discussion under three 
general heads: Long Island, Staten Island, and the Hudson Eiver. Consideration of 
the fyke-net fishery in the Great Lakes on which the State has a frontage will be 
taken up in the chapter on the lake region. The extent of this fishery in each of 
these regions in 1891 was as follows : 
Sections. 
Fisher- 
No. of 
nets. 
Value of 
catch. 
Staten Island 
18 
215 
$1, 450 
42, 459 
4,990 
Long Island * 
483 
Hudson River 
76 
h 148 
Total 
577 
6,246 
48,899 
* Including part of Westchester County bordering on Long Island Sound. 
The principal fishes taken in the Long Island region are flounders and flatfishes, 
so called; these constitute two-thirds of the value of the catch and are particularly 
important in Suffolk County. Other fish which have some prominence are sque- 
teague, bluefish, shad, butter-fish, tomcod, and menhaden. This is one of the sections 
in which terrapins have been taken in fykes, although, the present scarcity of these 
animals, as compared with earlier times, reduces the importance of the fishery to a 
minimum, and in the last year for which statistics are available it would seem that 
no terrapin were caught in this way. In 1889, however, in parts of Queens County 
small numbers were taken. At Bayville these were caught by means of fykes set 
across a stream, and resting on the bottom. The season began about July 20 and closed 
September 1. The fykes were set well up the stream and only remained about forty-eight 
hours, when they were changed to another stream. There were only about one-half 
as many terrapin caught as there were ten years ago. In 1872, in one night, four 
fykes caught 212 terrapin. After they were caught, the practice was to keep them in 
a pen until prospects were favorable for a good market. When in confinement they 
were fed on “fiddlers” up to within 10 days of the time of marketing them, when they 
were given corn meal. One man with the aid of a boy could make $8 per day at this 
fishery. These terrapin brought from 15 cents to $1.25 apiece, averaging about 80 cents. 
On the northern shore of Long Island Sound, in Westchester County, from thirty 
to fifty fykes have been set annually during recent years. They have an average 
value of $25, and catch mostly tomcod, flounders, striped bass, and tautog or blackfish. 
A fyke (plate lxxv, fig.l) used at New Rochelle and elsewhere along this shore consists 
of the ordinary 5-hooped bag, with two funnels and two asymmetrical wings. One 
of the wings, made of seven pieces of netting each 9 feet long, extends from the shore 
in the form of a bow and joins the side of the first hoop; the other consists of three 
short sections, 12, 5, and 4 feet long, respectively, the longest arm extending from 
the net toward the shore and joining the middle piece, which runs parallel with the 
