Commercial Geography / A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges

by Jacques W. Redway

SEA PRODUCTS AND FURS

The world's fish-catch amounts probably to more than one-quarter of a billion dollars in value and employs upward of a million people; in the United States 200,000 are employed. In some localities, such as the oceanic islands, far distant from the grazing lands of the continents, the flesh of fish is about the only fresh meat obtainable. Even on the continents fish is more available and cheaper than beef. The fish-producing areas pay no taxes; they require no cultivation; moreover, they do not require to be purchased. In general, fish supplements beef as an article of food; it is not a substitute for the latter.

The whale-catch excepted, fish are generally caught in the shallow waters of the continental coasts. The fish, in great schools, resort to such localities at certain seasons, and the seasons in which they school is the fisherman's opportunity. For the greater part, such shallows and banks are spawning-places. Most of the fish, however, are caught off the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America, these localities being nearest to the great centres of population.

Whales.—The whale is sought mainly in cold waters, and at the present time the chief whaling-grounds are in the vicinity of Point Barrow. In the first half of the nineteenth century whale-fishing was an industry involving hundreds of vessels and a large aggregate capital. The industry centred about New England seaports.

The train-oil obtained from the blubber of the animal was used partly as a lubricant, but mainly for illuminating purposes. For this purpose, however, it has been superseded by coal-oil, gas, and electricity. It is still in demand as a lubricant, but the whale-oil of commerce is quite as apt to come from the blubber of the porpoise or the sea-cow as from the right whale. Whalebone is a horny substance taken from the animal's jaw, and is worth from three dollars to eight dollars per pound. It is used chiefly in the manufacture of whips. For other purposes, steel, hard rubber, and celluloid have taken its place.

The substance called spermaceti is derived from the sperm-whale, an inhabitant of warm ocean-waters. Spermaceti is identical in its physical properties with paraffine, and the latter is now almost universally its substitute.

Ambergris, thought to be a morbid secretion or disease of the sperm-whale, is found in the body cavity of the animal and also in masses floating in the sea. It is used chiefly to give intensity to the odor of perfumes, and the best quality brings as much as five dollars per ounce. Most of the ambergris of commerce is obtained from the neighborhood of the Bahama Islands.

Cod.—In the amount of the product the cod-fisheries are the most important. The meat of the fish is not strong in flavor, and it is cured with little expense. So valuable is the annual catch that the banks and shallows which the schools frequent are governed by international treaties.

The cod is a cold-water fish, and the fishing-grounds are confined to rather high latitudes. The coast-waters of the Scandinavian peninsula and the shores of the Canadian coast, especially the Banks of Newfoundland, are the chief areas. The fishing-grounds of the Canadian coast are closed to foreign vessels inside a three-mile limit; beyond the limit they are occupied mainly by Canadian, French, and American fishermen. By the terms of treaties foreign vessels may enter the three-mile limit under restriction to purchase bait and food-supplies, and to cure their fish.