Russia.— This country has vast fishery re sources and the annual catch exceeds in value that of any other country of Europe except Great Britain. The ocean fisheries are insignifi cant, but those of the Caspian Sea and the fresh especially the Ural and Volga rivers, are very highly developed. The herring fisheries of the Caspian Sea, Kamchatka and Saghalen are famous, and millions of pounds are caught annually. The sturgeon fisheries are the most valuable in the world, the caviare product alone for 1911 amounting to 5,300,000 pounds. The roach is so abundant and cheap that it may he considered the national fish; between 200,000,000 and 300,000,000 pounds are taken annually in the Caspian Sea. Other important products are carp, catfish, bream, whitefish, yellow perch and lampreys. The total catch in 1910 was 228,000 pounds, valued at $49,985,000.
France.— Fisheries of great magnitude are prosecuted in the coast waters of France and by French fishermen in Newfoundland, Iceland and the North Sea. The number of vessel and boat fishermen is about 97,000 and of shore fisher men 62,000; and the value of the products taken was $21,240,000. In the cod fisheries of New foundland, Iceland and the North Sea, 44,600,000 kilograms of valued at $3,800,000, were caught; and in the high-sea fisheries 56,300,000 kilograms of herring, mackerel and other fish, valued at $5,600,000, were taken. The principal coast fishery is that for sardines, large quanti ties of which are canned and sent to all parts of the world; the quantity taken was about 40,200,000 kilograms, worth $2,400,000. Other valuable products are tunny, lobsters, spiny lobsters, crayfish, oysters, mussels and seaweeds. The cultivation of oysters has reached great perfection and upward of 1,000,000,000 oysters, grown in artificial enclosures, are marketed annually.
Norway.— In 1910 more than 120,000 peo ple were employed in the Norwegian fisheries, with a fleet of 183 steamers, 2,407 motor vessels, 3,779 sailing vessels and 7,571 open boats. The products are cod, valued at about 6,000,000; herring, valued at $3,250,000; mack erel, $800,000; pollock, $700,000; and sprat, $460,000. The cod fishery is carried on chiefly at the Lofoten Islands, where 35,000 fishermen are engaged. Other important fisheries are the lobster, whale, seal and shark. The total value of the fisheries was $13,151,080. A large part of the catch is exported to other European coun tries and the United States.
Other European Countries.— Germany has cod and herring fisheries, in the Baltic and North seas, and minor freshwater fisheries.
Upward of 32,000 persons are reported to be employed, and the catch in 1910 was valued at $8,905,140. The Netherlands have valuable her ring fisheries, which yield about $1,478,000. Other valuable products are cod, anchovy and oysters. The total yearly production is valued at $8,500,000. The fisheries of Denmark are valued at about $4,000,000. The fishermen of Belgium catch chiefly herring and cod, the out put being about $1,350,000 annually. Portugal has 4,000 vessels and boats, mostly engaged in the sardine and tunny fisheries; the products taken have a value of about $4,182,000. The
fisheries of Spain are estimated to be worth ;2,500,000, but no definite information regard ing them is obtainable. Italy has nearly 100,000 fishermen engaged in the tunny, coral, sponge and general food-fish fisheries. The aggreig_a_te value of water products is estimated at $3,500, 000 yearly. The Swedish fisheries are valued at about $3,850,000 annually. The principal species sought is the herring; the herring fishery of Bohuslan is famous, employing 7,500 men. Other important products are cod, mackerel, eels, salmon and lobsters. The sea fisheries of Austria-Hungary give employment to about 15,300 persons, and yield about $2,200,000 annu ally. Greece and Turkey have valuable sponge fisheries.
The total yield of the fisheries of Europe for the year 1910, as reported (May 1914) by the Permanent International Council for the Study of the Sea, was 5,670,221,200 pounds, of which herring constituted 26.48 per cent; cod, 18.5 per cent; haddock, 9 per cent; plaice, 6 per cent; mackerel, 3.09 per cent; sole, 2 per cent ; halibut, 2 per cent ; eels, 1 per cent.
The total value was about $126,000,000, of which England took $40,971,385; France, ,525,005; Scotland, $15,853,140; Norway, 3,151,080; Germany, $8,905,140; Netherlands, ,437,615; Denmark, $3,912245; Sweden, ,849,255 ; Iceland ( about ), $2,000,000 ; Ire land, $1,878,150; Russia, $1,347,335; Belgium, $1,347,250.
Statistics kept for the North Sea fisheries, covering an area of 152,473 square miles, show that the average quantity of fish taken in 1910 per square mile was 16,115 pounds. The average total catch per day from North Sea waters was 3,360,000 pounds.
The fisheries of Japan are in some respects the most important in the world, and in value rank next to those of the United States and Great Britain. In 1913, the fishing fleet of Japan comprised 133 steamers and 414,834 sailing craft and about 2,500,000 persons were employed in fishing and preparing fishery prod ucts. The total catch was valued at $47,532,924. All the coast waters abound in excellent food fishes, mollusks, crustaceans and other prod ucts, together with many objects used for orna mental, artistic and other purposes besides for food. The leading products are sardines (of which 500,000,000 pounds are annually caught), herring, bonito, cuttlefish and squid, tai, yellow tail, mackerel, tunny, salmon, cod, whales, coral and alga. The herring, salmon, cod and other fisheries of Hokkaido, the most northern of the main islands, are very extensive, yielding nearly 1,000,000,000 pounds. The aggregate output of the Ja , nese fisheries is probably not less than 6,000,111,000 pounds a year, with an estimated value of $30,000,000.
P.,