You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
125<br />
to one pound of dry, the cod and hake fishery this year captured about half a million<br />
of fish, besides haddock.<br />
No boneless cod has been put up this season, which is to be wondered at, as the<br />
product is neat, clean and convenient, and seemed, at one time, to be growing in de<br />
mand1<br />
In 1882, acting on the strong recommendation of the late Professor Baird, U. S.<br />
Commissioner of Fisheries, some of the Island fishermen tried gill-nets for cod.<br />
After a trial which might, or might not, have been sufficiently long, they were given<br />
up, for reasons that I have always failed to appreciate. The fact remains that they<br />
are no longer in use.<br />
Some of our merchants have received offers from British Columbia to open an<br />
eastern trade in the black cod, Anoplopoma fimbria, of the Pacific.<br />
LOBSTERS.<br />
This year's result has not solved the problem whether a shortened fishing season<br />
is itself sufficient to restore the fishery to its former condition. In Annual Report<br />
of 1886 it was urged that the Department, in dealing with the lobster fishery, had nolonger<br />
a question of regulating a legitimate occupation, but of ekeing out a ruined<br />
industry. The records of this yeai 's fishing support these views.<br />
In the year 1887, the product of the lobster fishing season, nominally<br />
from 20th April, but in reality from 10th to 15th of May, to 20th August,<br />
equivalent to about eighty-six working days, was 2,009,107 cans.<br />
This year 188, the product, nominally from 20th April, but actually from<br />
10th to 15th May, to 15th July, equivalent to sixty working days, was 1,446,227 cans;.<br />
a diminution of 562,880 cans this year, as compared with last, owing to 6,628<br />
fewer traps being set.<br />
The whole period of lobster fishing in Prince Edward Island is covered by about<br />
eighteen years. At first only a few hundred cans, afterwards in increasing thousands<br />
yearly; 1876 doubled the catch of 185, and 1877 doubled the catch of 1876, the<br />
quantity then reaching 663,900 cans. In 1878, the product rose at a bound to-<br />
1,649,800 cans, rapidly increasing until 1881, when the business attained its<br />
maximum development in 6,312,865 cans. Thereafter, the fluctuations of the<br />
industry have been as follows:<br />
1879 showed 623,025 cans more than previous year.<br />
1880 do 1,278,225 do more do (extension.)<br />
1881 do 2,761,815 do more do<br />
1882 do 1,114,145 do less do (extension.)<br />
1883 do 1,354,147 do less do (extension.)<br />
1884 do 489,082 do more do (extension.)<br />
1885 do 55,534 do more do<br />
1886 do 772,409 do less do<br />
1887 do 1,607,673 do less do<br />
1888 do 562,880 do less do<br />
The rate of production per trap, as nearly as may be, may thus be estimated:<br />
No of factories. No. of traps. Product per trap.<br />
1879. 35 52,000 45 cans<br />
1880 . 58 89,000 45 do<br />
1881 118 140,000 44 do<br />
1882... .. 130 121,000 43 do<br />
1883 88 91,000 42 do<br />
1884...... 97 98,000 40 do<br />
1885 113 123,485 35 do<br />
From high prices in 1881.<br />
1886 130 110,000 33 do