The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-11-10
|rawlers Are Sweeping the
Oceans of Their Natural
Resources, Is Waning of
limited States Official.

INCoC
l United States Official.
r-,uIers are threatening the natur-
7,..ources of the sea, and the world,
consequence, is facing a famine
! fish.
c.5 IS the warning issued by Lew
p.drIiffe. deputy commissioner OF
iII@-9ited States Bureau of Fisheries.
I.Tb;. question of emptying the
- nj fish is more than depart
al a." flair to me; it is a hobby"
IA I'M - Radcliffe. This is easy to be-
for his office has walls covered
huge mariners charts of the fish
rounds of the Newfoundland
,s and Alaska, colored prints of
M and personal Photographic SOU
mrs OF angling excursions on Ches-
h a.te Bav. His only side table is re-
" " for an aquarium OF goldfish.
Vast Store House of Food.
II. Is common to look upon the
nc vast untapped store house of
As matter of fact it is getting
,9st al barren as it looks. This has
~ ante forcefully demonstrated in
t.beries of the north Atlantic, the
inc the North sea- Iceland and
T'oiortunately the depletion is Oft
=. slow in showing itself owing to
increased intensiveness of tAe
s;rg The scarcer the fish become
more thoroughly DO the trawlers
rr the fishing grounds or go to
ones.
Won have an illustration of this in
case OF our salmon fisheries. Prior
1905 the Pacific coast accounted
aver e-half-in fact, nearly 90
cent-of the total pack, as the
rrfries call it. In 1905 the figure
IS per cent; in 1910 81 per cent
in l920-22 10 per cent. Alaska
grounds-made up for the differ
Catches Falling OFF.
I'm most lines there has been an
] Milling falling off in the catches. In
X our production OF shad was i'll
res, OF 50,000,000 pounds. In 1908 it
27500,000 pounds, while at the
F.ent time it is but 100000
gnds. Shad is caught mostly on
Atlantic coast, from Maine to
orida.
However, few years ago the Pa
was planted by the bureau with
ID taken from the Atlantic. Last
b iorty-tive carloads, or some two
three million pounds of shad, were
pped east from the Pacific.
The total production of sturgeon
reased from 100000 pounds in
to 100000 pounds in 1900 and
gO0O pounds in 1908. At the pres
time the production is below l.
600 pounds.
in 1889 the lobster production ex-
tdsd 100000 pounds. By 1900 it
dropped to 100000 pounds. At
present time it is 100000 lbs.
aware OF NTdD OCdI Clly.
Maryland is painfully aware of the
rdty 81 crabs. This is due to in
sve fishing. The peak OF the Chesa-
Ike crab catch was reached III 1915,
100000 pounds. At present the
h is down to some 100000 or
100000 pounds.
1t is the same story with oysters.
1912 the production for the whole
nuy was about 25,000.000 bushels
market oysters. In 1922 it was IL
900 bushels, a decrease OF 81 per
Other great foreign fishing grounds
the same story to tell. The Unit
States is not the only culprit in
war to the death on the fish. From
TO 1913 the average catch OF
tsh trawler per days absence from
ranged between 1887 to 2,027l
nds, The war practically put a
to fishing, with the result that
grounds had chance to recuper-
Increased After War.
The first year after the war the
Fage daily catch increased to 3,483
nds or 80 per cent greater than
pre-war average. In 1921 at had
ned to 2,173 pounds and in 1928
sos pounds. Thus, within a five
period of fishing the increment
led during fve-year closed sea
was wiped out and new low lev
reached.
Iceland, where British trawlers
az. the record is similar. The