The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1903-09-15
REVENUE FROM SEA.
Business of Salt Water Fisheries of
Middle Atlantic States.
WhmS the Returns of SIX PrI N Cd pal
States show Regarding tke
Catch-some Interesting
Particulars

Az n Time OF year WHcu uOIc HSH ~
consumed than at any other season
few facts concerning the industry of
supplying the market with that arti-
Gle of diet are not without interest.
The United States commissioner Of
fisheries, George NJ. Bowers, recently
issued a report on the value of the
catch for a. year along the coast of six
states-New York, New jersey, Penn
sylvania, Delaware. Maryland and Vir-
ginia. Though the scope of this sur
vey is comparatively limited, it never
thelese embraces details which will
probably be new to many readers. The
figures are those of 1901, but to great
extent they are probably representa-
tive of other years, reports the New
York Tribune.
The largest amount Of money paid
by the dealers to the fishermen is for
oysters. No less than $9,129, 992 went
for these bivalves, to say nothing of
$1,156,564 for seed oysters. The
amount first mentioned is only little
over half of the total valuation lat
wholesale rates) of the salt water fish
cries for year. CLANS yielded $1,074,-
S34, that sum being divided in the pro-
portion OF about nine to one between
hard and soft shell clans. Shad, how
ever, ranked next after oysters, hav-
ing cost the markets $1,253, 1877. Men
baden, which are converted into oil
and fertilizers, and do not find place
on the table, took the fourth place in
the ocession, being credited with
$9s7,22S, while bluefsh brought $780,
1852, wealrfish $55s,209, crabs (hard and
soft $495, 1886, alewives (fresh and salt
ed S262,352, white perch $154,239, cells,
$152,6s6, butterfsh $149,9s4, sea bass
$12666s cod $119,590, founders SILL
IT'S, and scallops $11O,537. OF course,
the amounts of certain fish (cod, for
instance) caught along the Mid1le
Atlantic coast do not correspond with
the consumption in the same region,
because large quantities. are brought
from New England Halibut, one of
the staples of the fish trade, does not
appear in Commits sioner Bowers ia bles
at all.
Inasmuch as the weights, as we'll is
the value, of each kind of fish caught
are mentioned, it Is an easy after to
figure out the average price in every
instance. Thus menhaden sold at
one-fifth Of cent pound, alewivesi a t
four-fifths, sea bass at 2 cents, weak
fish at 21s, cod at 3, common mackerel
and shad at 4, blueis hat AZ, white
bait at 7, sheepshead at 8, Spanish
mackerel and scallops at 8, striped
bass at nearly 10, Holsters at 10, terra
pin at 40 and shrimps at so cents a
pound.
Locality has netting to do with
prices, however, either because of diff
ferences in quality or differences in de-
mand. Thus, New York and New Jer-
sey shad brought only fraction over
cents, nd the Virginia product only
2, while that of Delaware and Penn
sylvania commanded Al and Az cents,
respectively. Again, striped bass from
Maryland sold for cents, and that
from New York for 10. Even more
striking inequalities are afforded by
the returns for terrapin. Those pro-
duced in Virginia averaged hess than 80
cents, Maryland rs, New Jerseys a
trifie over 40 cents, and New York s
(only 34o pounds), 81. What is prac-
ticaily pareallel case is found in the
figures for oysters. Virginia produced
42,473,6s3 pounds and Maryland 39,7ss,-
OPT, but as the former sold for only 6
cents pound and the latter for ~,
Maryland received the more money. In
the meantime New York sold her 49,
sso,921 pounds for nearly IA cents a
pound.