Fishing industry

“ The book is chiefly concerned with fisheries for edible fish. I have included a chapter on whale fisheries, since whale oil is now used largely in the manufacture of such food substances as lard substitute and margarine. No account of seal “fishing” is included, as seals are not fished but are generally hunted on shore. I have not included fisheries for pearls, sponges or seaweed. To its cost the nation knows little of the methods and organization and achievements of the Fishing Industry. ”

“ The old order changeth, and although there is that connected with this transformation in the fishing13 industry which is to be regretted, yet, on the whole, the developments of the past forty years have undoubtedly transformed the fishing industry into a very efficient and valuable national asset. Individually, the present-day steam fisherman is very much inferior to his sailing predecessor. The centralization of the industry in a few big ports, although undoubtedly making for much greater efficiency, bears hardly on the type of the old class of expert fishermen ”

“ We propose to confine our attention mainly to the North Sea, and, from another point of view, mainly to the English fishing authorities, as opposed to those of Scotland and Ireland, in each of which countries the fishing industry is controlled by a separate Board. The fundamental and central question to be settled is whether there is a diminution in the fish generally, or in any particular species of food-fish in the North Sea area, by far the most productive of our fishing-grounds. ”

“ The superior power and equipment of the big steam trawlers and drifters, properly utilized and encouraged, should be one of the most valuable industrial assets of the State. We are not a great food-producing nation; on the contrary, in the years before the war, we actually imported more than 40 per cent of our total food requirements. We are surrounded by seas that teem with every form of edible fish. British enterprise has built up a fishing industry which is the greatest and most efficient in the world. ”

“ The whale fishery, at one time the leading fishing industry of the country, is now conducted chiefly in the North Pacific and Arctic oceans, but is decaying, being now expensive, uncertain and often unremunerative. ”

“ To further increase our domestic food supply, we must take measures to stimulate the fishing industry. The United States Government has already voted us technical assistance and training facilities for deep-sea fishing. ”

“ FISHING INDUSTRY. The business of catching, preserving and selling fish gives employment probably to more than 10,000 men in this state and adds probably four million dollars annually to its wealth production. The fishes include salmon, which is the chief commercial species, cod in many varieties, halibut, salmon trout, perch, sole, flounders, smelt, herring, sardines, oysters, clams, crabs and shrimp from its salt waters, and sturgeon, trout, perch, black bass, white fish and many others from the fresh water. ”

“ In this manner I have seen them take vast numbers of fish, and indeed it is a most general way of fishing all over the coast. Their hooks are ill made, generally of bone or shell fastened to a piece of wood; indeed, they seem to have little occasion for them, for with their nets they take fish much easier than they could with hooks.
In tilling they excel, as people who are themselves to eat the fruit of their industry, and have little else to do but cultivate, necessarily must. ”

“ In some places the fishing is valuable, enabling him to supply his family with food for a part of the year, and bringing him money besides. He is, however, often too poor to provide the necessary boats and nets, while in many places the absence of good harbors and landings is a most serious drawback to the fishing industry. ”

“ Though the success of a particular day's fishing may be a very uncertain matter, yet the local situation of the country being supposed, the general efficacy of industry in bringing a certain quantity of fish to market, taking the course of a year, or of several years together, it may, perhaps, be thought is certain enough ”

“ And he concludes his discussion of the subject, in § 2373, by affirming the exemption of the coast fishery, and pointing out the distinction in this regard between the coast fishery and what he calls the great fishery, for cod, whales, or seals, as follows: 'The privilege of exemption from capture, which is generally acquired by fishing vessels plying their industry near the coasts, is not extended in any country to ships employed on the high sea in what is called the great fishery, such as that for the cod, for the whale or the sperm whale, or for the seal or sea calf. ”

“ The fish swim against the nets, push their heads through, and then, owing to their gill openings, find that they cannot withdraw their heads, and in this way are caught in enormous numbers. Generally, fishing goes on all night, and in the morning the nets are hauled in, and, together with the attached fish, are thrown into the hold situated amidships. The drifters then return with all possible speed to the fish wharf. While the boats are returning to port, the men draw the nets from the hold and shake them free from any entangled fish. ”

“ In the fishery for sardines for canning, bait is almost as important as the boats and nets. In no other net fishery in the world is bait so extensively employed and so essential to the success of the industry. The scarcity of bait is always a serious matter in the fishing districts, curtailing the catch, reducing the income of the fisherman, and often producing distress among the fisherfolk. ”

“ The industry is an enormous one, and of the utmost value to the dwellers in these islands. At the present time there are over 27,000 vessels, manned by more than 90,000 seamen, fishing from the ports of Great Britain. They land over 900,000 tons of fish, worth some £10,000,000, during the year. In addition to the fishermen who remove the fish from the sea, a considerable population of packers, curers, coopers, hawkers, etc., is employed. ”

“ There are rich salmon-fisheries in the lower parts of the great northern rivers, especially the Torne, Kalix, Lule, Ångerman and Indal; in the Dal, the Klar and Göta, and several of the lesser rivers of the south. In the majority of rivers no special necessity has been found to protect the fishing. As a general rule the owner of the shore owns the river fishing. The chief inspector of fisheries is a member of the board of agriculture.
Mining.—The iron-mining industry is of high importance, the output of iron ore forming by far the largest item in the total output of ores and minerals. ”

“ Consequently, since fishing methods are essentially the same everywhere, it will be sufficient for us to consider, with few exceptions, the methods and equipment that are used by our own fishermen around our own shores. ”

“ The importance of fisheries in the food-supplies of nations, inland as well as maritime, and as offering a remunerative return for labor, can scarcely be overestimated. One great peculiarity of this source of wealth is that the sea harvest is ripened without trouble or expense for the fisher, who only requires to provide the means of gathering it.
Means of Capture. Lines. The principal means of capturing fishes are nets and the hook and line. The hand-line is much used for ordinary fishing, but where this is carried on extensively at sea, a ‘set’ or ‘long’ line must be used. ”

“ The whale-fishery has been fairly beaten out of the field by oil-spouting rocks. Why should we brave the perils of the Arctic circle when by sinking a tube in Pennsylvania we may strike a fellow of a thousand barrels, and wax rich while asleep? New London, Nantucket, New Bedford, and Edgartown have answered. The cod and mackerel fisheries have dwindled into like insignificance, say Marblehead, Gloucester, and all fishing ports along shore. ”

“ The wholesale fishery is carried on by small fishing smacks or “bangers,” as the fishermen popularly term them, each of which is constructed with a large deep well, into which the fresh sea-water is allowed to enter by means of a grating. This is for a double purpose, viz., to keep the fish alive after taken as long as possible, and also to enable the cod-smack to remain at sea as long as may suffice to catch a good supply of fish before proceeding to that part of the coast where there may be a market for them. ”

“ One more modern feature, which is also a result of the increase of anglers, is the great advance made in fish-culture, fish-stocking and fish-acclimatization during the last half-century. Fish-culture is now a recognized industry; every trout-stream of note and value is restocked from time to time as a matter of course; salmon-hatcheries are numerous, though their practical utility is still a debated matter, in Great Britain at any rate; coarse fish are also bred for purposes of restocking ”

“ All these banks are breeding places of the most valued of our food fishes—the cod, haddock, cusk, hake, pollock, and halibut—and each in its proper season furnishes fishing ground where are taken many other important species of migratory and pelagic food fishes as well as those named here. It is probable that no other fishing area equaling this in size or in productivity exists anywhere else in the world, and the figures of the total catch taken from it must show an enormous poundage and a most imposing sum representing the value of its fishery. ”

“ The high-sea fisheries for cod, haddock, hake, halibut, mackerel, herring, and so forth are on the whole not increasing in prosperity, the annual value being between one and two million pounds. The lobster fishery shows a markedly diminishing yield, the diminution having been progressive since about 1890, and being attributed to over-fishing and violation of the restrictive regulations. ”

“ But the fishery interest pervades the whole town, dwarfing everything else. The main street winds about the head of the harbor, bending with the sinuosities of the shore, and from it other streets, without much regularity, go down to the wharves. Fishing-boats are everywhere, with new ones building, and on most of the open spaces are "cod-flakes," or drying-places, where the fish are piled when first landed, preparatory to being cut up and packed in the extensive packing-houses adjoining the wharves. Here many hundreds are employed in preparing the fish for market, both men and women working. ”

“ As soon as they near the shore, they bring the two ends of the net to the land, fix them there, and are then able to pick up and throw ashore all the fish that are in the net. Some of the more active fish escape by leaping over the upper edge of the net, and some of the mud-loving and crafty wriggle their way under the lower edge; but there is always a sufficiency of fish to reward the natives for their labor.
Like the fishing line, the net is made of chewed reeds, and the labor of chewing and twisting the string belongs exclusively to the women. ”

“ The value of the herring fisheries is enhanced by the careful methods of smoking and salting, the export of salted fish being considerable. In the winter the largest boats are laid up and the remainder take to line-fishing. Middelharnis, Pernis and Zwartewaal are the centres of this branch of fishery, which yields halibut, cod, ling and haddock. The trawl fisheries of the coast yield sole, plaice, turbot, brill, skate, &c., of which a large part is brought alive to the market. ”

“ If the rate be laid on the extent of frontage to the river, one man may have a great extent of no value for fishing purposes, another may have only one pool, so conveniently formed and placed for netting that he will be able to catch ten times as many fish as the other. Then how are the fisheries in the estuary and just above tideway to be valued? They probably take ninety per cent. of all the seasonable fish. Will they be willing to pay ninety per cent. of the rate?
Again, the college at Stonyhurst claims a right of several fishery, both in the Ribble and the Hodder. ”

“ That our knowledge of the habits, time, and place of spawning, food peculiarities of the young, migrations, &c, of the fish which form the basis of British fisheries is lamentably deficient, and that without further knowledge any legislation or attempts to improve our fisheries by better modes of fishing, or protection, or culture, must be dangerous and indeed unreasonable. ”

“ In winter and spring they are settled with every time they deliver fish?-Yes; but the quantity delivered then is comparatively small. Sometimes in summer the fishermen are working ten or twelve miles away from where the curer is, and of course, to come in and be settled with every week, or even every month, would be a great hardship. They might lose very good days when they could be more profitably employed at the fishing. ”

“ The owners of boats and nets receive far larger sums, but none the less they generally take an active part in the fishing operations. From one end of the coast to the other, the capitalist who owns many crafts, and lives upon the income derived from their hire, is almost unknown.
The fish crowd the shallow shoal waters, and move up and down the coast, during the whole of the open season, in great schools acres in extent. ”

“ Our natural resources offer us some of the world's most bountiful fishing. Commercial fishing supplies us with a tremendous amount of food and other products, and recreational fishing contributes some $25 billion to our economy each year and employs some 600,000 people. Fishermen know firsthand the joys of fishing-it is an ideal family activity, for instance-and realize the need for careful stewardship of our sport and commercial fishery resources. ”