DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,

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