THE HARVEST OF THE SEA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5422, 13 August 1878, Page 3

THE HARVEST OF THE SEA.

(From the Scientific American.) At a meeting of the American Fish Guitarists* Association, Professor G. B. Good gave statistics showing that the fisheries of this country .yielded in 1876 a grand total of nearly thirteen hundred million pounds, valued at over 75,000,000d01. First in prominence were tho oyster fisheries, the products of which were valued at 50,000,000d01. When it is remembered that, to a large extent, the oyster crop depends on'artificial planting and systematic cultivation,, tho suggestion that the Government ought to take proper steps to secure to the owners of oyster-grounds a defensible right thereof seems no more than just and reasonable. It is something new, to be sure, to grant individual title to land, below low water mark ; but since industry has given to such land, over largo areas, a value equal to that of any dry land, and since the cultivation of such reclaimed sea-bed adds enormously to the common food supply, it would bo, but simple justice to put the seafanner on the aamo footing before the law as the upland-farmer. Tho legal right of an oyster-planter to the ground he cultivates and the crop be produces should be put beyond dispute, and its wholesale invasion,. now so common wherever oyster cultivation has been attempted, should be made impossible. It is no less than a national disgrace that an industry so honorable and useful should bo practically outlawed. Compared with tho oyster crop, other fisheries are of small value. Tho cod fisheries yielded in 1876, according to Professor Good’s figures, 4,825,510d01.; the whale, 2,841,OOOdol; the mackerel, 2,375,262d0h; the menhaden, 1,657,790. The yield of the Great Lakes is valued at 1,600,000d01. Of river - fisheries (shad, salmon, &c.) no estimate is given. The lobster catch is valued at 1,000,000d01. Of the various other shell fish (clams, scallops, &c.) no mention is made. The timber of vessels employed in our fisheries is set down as 2188, with a tonnage of 80,000, clearly an underestimate. 1 •