FISHERIES, a term which includes the taking of all kinds of water products as a business and thus applies to the pursuit of . whales, seals, otters and other mammals; to the hunting of frogs, turtles and alligators; to the taking of oysters, clams, lobsters, crabs, shrimp and other shellfish; and to the gather ing of corals, sponges and seaweeds, as well as to the capture of fish proper. Closely re lated to the fisheries is fish culture, by which the supply of water animals is maintained and increased; and the various shore industries hav ing for their object the utilization or preser vation of the products as brought in by the fishermen.
The countries whose fisheries are of great est commercial importance, being worth upward of $5,000,000yearly, are the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, Canada, Russia, Norway, Germany and the Nether lands, in the order given. Countries which may be regarded as of second-rate importance in this res, ct, whose fisheries are worth be tween $1,011,030 and $5,000,000 annually, are Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Italy. No data are available for China and India, whose fisheries must be very extensive, and perhaps entitled to rank with those of the leading countries. An estimate based on official data and all other available information gives $350,000,000 as the approximate annual value of the commercial fisheries of the world. Water animals which are of great economic import ance in both hemispheres are whales, seals, sea herring, mackerel, tunny, cod, halibut, lobsters, shrimp, oysters and sponges. The most valu able of all fishery products are oysters; the most valuable of all fishes are sea-herring, salmon and cod.
United The importance attained by the United-States fisheries has been due to the abundance, variety, excellence and wide distribution of the products, augmented by cultivation and acclimatization. The abun dance of food fishes had a marked influence on the original colonization of the country and was also an important factor in the subsequent development of various regions. At the out
break of the Revolutionary War, some of the vessel fisheries had already become very ex tensive and sailor-fishermen, mostly from New England, manned our naval vessels and pri vateers and rendered valiant service.
For the years between the regular decennial fisheries census, returns are but fragmentary. For 1915 it is estimated that they exceed those of 1908 by about 2 per cent. According to the fisheries census, last compiled by the Census Bureau (for the calendar year 1908), the num ber of persons engaged in the fisheries of the United States in that year was 143,::1, of whom 141,031 were sea fishermen and 2,850 shoresmen. The capital employed was $42,021, 000, of which $13,806,000 was the value of the vessels; $7,269,000 of the open boats; $13,025, 000 the value of apparatus and appliantes; $5, 342,000 the value of shore property; and 579,000 the amount of cash capital invested. The number of fishing vessels was 6,933 (ag gregating 126,453 tons) and the number of open boats and vessels under 5 tons burden was 83,548. The equipment of the fisheries was 233,256 gill nets; 81,191 fyke and hoop nets; 115,104 pound nets, trap nets and weirs; 7,966 seines ; and 17,787 other nets; lines valued at dredges, tongs and rakes valued at 75,000. The total value of the catch was representing an aggregate weight of 1,893,450,000 pounds — including the weight only of the edible parts of the oysters, clams, scallops, etc. Of the total catch 60 per cent was taken with nets and seines, 8 per cent with lines and baited hooks and 7 per cent with dredges and rakes. Of the whole, food fish amounted to 1,046,541,000 pounds, valued at $29,254,000; menhaden amounted to 394,776,000 pounds, valued at $893,000; oysters, clams, etc., amounted to 347,799,000 pounds, valued at $18, 752,000; lobsters and crabs, 96,225,000 pounds, valued at $3,466,000; whale products, 4,028,000 5unds, valued at $497,000; and sponges, 622, 555 pounds, valued at $545,000. .