Shallow-water Fisheries.—Fisheries fall into two classes accord ing to whether they are carried on in ,shallow waters near the coast, or in deeper waters out in the open sea or on ocean "banks." Many shallow-water fisheries are concerned with shellfish and can be carried on without the use of boats. Clams, for example, are dug in large numbers at low tide on the New England and Middle Atlantic coast. The oyster "crop," which amounts to a third of the value of all the fisheries in the country, is dredged from the bottom in water not over 100 feet deep. About five-sixths of the world's oysters come from the Atlantic coast of the United States, especially from Cane Cod to Cape Hatteras. The lobster, which lives in shallow waters, especially on the Atlantic coast from the Delaware River to the Saint Lawrence, is so highly prized that the United States has been obliged to pass stringent laws to conserve the supply: hence our chief supply now comes from Canada.
The Government and the Sea Floor.—The animals in the shal low oceanic waters are so valuable and the demand for them so great that the government has been obliged to help in two respects. First, it is trying to increase the supply by protecting the eggs and raising young animals in huge quantities until they are large enough to be free and shift for themselves. Second, it is setting aside certain parts of the sea floor for a sort of private ownership, so that people may care for the eggs or spawn of the oyster, for example, and see that the young oysters have 'a chance to grow. This makes it worth while for a man not only to place old oyster shells or tree branches in the water to provide lodging places for the spawn, but also to hatch oysters artificially and place them in beds on the sea bottom. He knows that the government will protect his right to harvest the crop that he has planted, and will punish unscrupulous people who come on a dark night or in a fog to steal the crop, just as it will punish the thief in a peach orchard.
Salmon Fisheries.—The chief shallow-water fisheries are con cerned with animals that live at the bottom of the sea and do not travel great distances. Some, however, are concerned with genuine fish such as the shad, sardine, herring, and salmon that travel long distances in great shoals in order to reach their feeding ground or to find safe places where they may lay their eggs and where the little fish may grow up. During the spawning season the lower parts of the rivers that empty into the Pacific Ocean from California around by Alaska to Japan are crowded with salmon. So numerous are the fish that great waterwheels are sometimes arranged so that as the current turns them they throw the fish out into boats. The rest of the fish come crowding on regardless of those that are captured. In the
cold rivers of Alaska multitudes of salmon are caught by men who go there for a month or two each summer simply for that purpose. No other fish is so extensively canned.
Deep-sea Fisheries.—The deep-sea fisheries are centered in the "banks," or oceanic shallows of three chief regions. One region extends from George's Bank off Cape Cod to the banks of New foundland and Labrador. This is the fishing ground in which the United States is chiefly interested, for although fishermen come there from Europe and Canada, the greater part of the catch is made by New Englanders, especially by men from Gloucester, who take their fish to Boston.
The second region includes the banks of the North Sea, where the world's greatest fisheries are located. With these may be included the fishing regions off the coasts of Norway near Iceland, Faroe, and other islands. The third region is the Pacific waters near Japan and northward, where thousands of boats scour the seas for the fish that form the main animal food of the fifty million Japanese.
The banks on which all these fisheries are located are shallow places where the depth does not prevent the light from reaching the bottom, and hence where great quantities of alga provide food for the count less small animals on which the larger fish prey. The most impor tant fish is the cod, which is usually salted and dried. It is shipped to all parts of the world. In the early days of New England the codfish was so important that several times the colonists would almost have starved without it. Therefore it is fitting that a cod should hang over the chair of the President of the Massachusetts Senate.
Location of Fishing Communities.—The world's chief fishing communities are all alike in three important respects. (a) They are located in comparatively northern latitudes; (b) they are in regions where agriculture meets with special difficulties; and (c) they are upon submerged coasts. Let us study these three conditions.
(a) Effect of Latitude.—One of the reasons why fisheries have developed in high latitudes rather than near the equator is that fish can easily be preserved in cool climates, but not in warm. When fish are caught far from land it is impossible to dry them. The only way is to salt them down in the ship's hold. This is successful only in high latitudes, for elsewhere the fish will not keep. The people of the tropics generally catch fish only for immediate consumption. The modern process of cold storage, however, is at last making it possible to catch fish profitably on a large scale in tropical regions, and thus opens up an enormous and almost untouched source of food.