The commercial products of the sea, or, Marine contributions to food, industry, and art

Preface

Having published a series of papers in the Art Journal, under the title of “ Marine Contributions to Art,” and some other articles on various products obtained from the Sea in my serial publications, The Technologist and The Journal of Applied Science, it occurred to me that they might be conveniently collected into a volume, which would form a companion to books I had previously published on “The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom,” and on “Animal Products : their Preparation and Uses.” Hence the appearance of the present work, which, I believe, will supply a want, by furnishing accurate details respecting articles and products of considerable importance in a commercial point of view.

Although some works have been published from time to time on special fisheries, none have treated the subject as a whole, or gone over the field of research in a systematic manner, so as to show the importance of the Commercial Products of the Sea to various countries. I have endea-

IV

Preface.

voured to bring down the official statistics in the several chapters to the latest date, and therefore I trust the work may be found a useful and readable handbook for all those interested in marine productions.

While I do not claim any merit for originality in this book, I may state that I have taken every pains to consult all published documents treating on the subject that have come under my notice, especially those issued in the United States and on the Continent, and also the official publications printed by different Governments.

As the book professes to deal only with the Products of the Sea, I have necessarily had to exclude much interesting matter relating to the River and Lake Fisheries of various countries.

P. L. SIMMONDS.

29, Cheapside, London, October, 1S78.

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The widespread interest excited by the International Fisheries Exhibition has induced us to issue a New and Cheaper Edition of this work, which has already taken its place as a valuable collection of facts concerning marine contributions to food, industrj', and art.

The vast importance of our marine harvests, practically showm in the great Exhibition of 1883, is permanently recorded in the pages of this volume, which does for the library what the Exhibition does for the eye, viz. presents a complete survey of the commercial products of the sea.

Contents

PAGE

General Introduction ... ... .. .. ... i

Part I. Food Products Obtained From The Sea

CHAHTER

I. The Cod Fishery in Various Countries ... ... ... 25

II. The Herring Fishery ... ... ... ... 41

III. The Pilchard Fishery ... ... ... ... 61

IV. The Mackerel Fishery ... ... ... ... ... 66

VI. The Sardine Fishery ... ... ... ... ... 77

VII. The Tuimy Fishery ... ... ... ... ... 83

IX. The Trepang Fishery ... ... ... 105

X. Cephalopods, etc., as Food ... ... ... .. 116

XI. Miscellaneous Fisheries ... ... ... ... 127

XII. Oysters and other Edible Mollusca ... ... ... 131

Part II. Marine Contributions To Industry

I. Introductory Remarks ... .. .. ... 151

II. Sponge and the Sponge Fisheries ... ... ... 155

HI. The Sponge. Fishery of the Bahamas ... ... ... 174

IV. Sponge Fisheries of the Mediterranean ... ... ... 183

VI

Conteiits.

CHAPTER PACE

V. Oils from Marine Mammals ... ... ... ... I9^

VI. Fish Oils and the Fisheries connected therewith ... ... 212

VII. The Shark Fishery for the Oil obtained ... ... 226

VIII. The Isinglass of Commerce ... ... ... ... 238

IX. Other Fish Products and their Uses ... ... ... 257

X. Industrial and Manufacturing Uses of Shells ... ... 267

XI. Industrial and Manufacturing Uses of Shells — Contmued ... 288

XII. Seaweed and its Uses ... ... ... ... ... 311

Part III. Marine Contributions To Art

I. Tortoiseshell and the Turtle Fisheries ... ... ... 351

II. Mother-of-Pearl and its Uses ... ... ... ... 370

III. Pearls and the Pearl Fisheries ... ... ... ... 402

IV. Coral and the Coral Fisheries ... ... ... ... 436

V. Amber and the Amber Fisheries ... ... ... ... 463 ft

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG. FACE

4. Sponge showing the Outgoing Water-currents ... ... 156

5. Outer Surface of dififerent kinds of Sponge ... ... ... 166

6. Cup-shaped Sponges in natural position, rooted to rock ... 169

9. Silicious Sponges, i. Euplectella aspergillum. 2. Holtenia car-

14. Greenland or Right Whale, and Spermaceti Whale .. . ... 206

15. Black Porpoise (Phocsena vulgaris) ... ... ... ... 208

17. Halicore Australis, and Manatus Americanus ... ... ... 210

19. Chank Shell (Turbinella pyrum) ... ... ... ... 288

20. Saw used by Natives for cutting Segments of the Shell ... 290

21. Segment of Shell, and Bangle, or Ornamented Bracelet of United

22. I. Money Cowry. 2. Ovulum angulosum. 3. Dentalium Shell

(Money of West Coast Indians). 4. Fillet of Nautilus Shells (from Samoa) ... ... ... ... ... ... 296 viii List of Illustrations.

FIG. FACE

23. Pinna nobilis, and Pinna rugosa ... ... ... ... 307

25. Ulva latissima (Green Sloke), and Chondrus crispus (Carrageen

28. Diving for Pearl Shells at Panama ... ... ... 384

29. Mother-of-Pearl Shell, and Anodonta herculse ... ... ... 41 1

30. Corallium nobilis, or red Coral, with a piece magnified, showing

V

THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS OF THE SEA.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Importance of marine products — Uses of the animals — Number of species of fishes — French bounty on fisheries — Statistics of British fisheries — Fish as an article of food — Definition of “ prime ” and “ offal ” in the London market — Quantity of fish brought to London — Value of fish and other marine products imported — Value of exports — Statistics of British, French, and North American fisheries — French fisheries, and consumption of fish in Paris — Value of the trade in fish in foreign countries.

The commercial products obtained from the sea are 1 more numerous and important than would be generally / supposed by those who have not looked closely into the subject. The huge marine mammals furnish us with valuable oil, skins, whalebone, spermaceti, ambergris, etc., as well as food to some tribes. The utility of fishes, properly so called, to man is not very various. For the most part, they serve only as food ; but in this respect they are of the utmost importance to a great part of the human race, who live only on this class of animals. Some savage nations possess the art of preparing fish in a great variety of ways, even as a kind of flour and bread. Fish are also salted and •L,

B dried, smoked and potted, preserved in oil, and pounded into a dry mass.

In Catholic countries the consumption of fish during their fasts and festivals is very large ; all other food being then prohibited by their priests.

To a great part of the civilized world the taking of the herring, the pilchard, the mackerel, the cod, the tunny, the salmon, the sardine, and other fishes is of great value, and gives employment to many hundreds of persons. The oil obtained from the shark, cod, herring, and other fish is used for lamps, medicine, and in industry. Many parts of fish are employed in the arts and manufactures — as the scales of the bleak for making false pearls, and those of other fish for making ornaments ; the skins for tanning and other purposes. Isinglass is obtained from the air or swimming bladders of many. Fish roes are not only used as food delicacies, but also for bait in the fishing grounds. Fish maws, shark’s fins, and b^che-de-mer or trepang (a species of Holothurici) are considered great food delicacies by the Chinese, forming the chief ingredients for their gelatinous soups.

The sea is more abundantly stocked with living creatures than the land. In all parts of the world a rocky and partially protected shore perhaps supports, in a given space, a greater number of individual animals than any other station. The sea is filled with animals of several kinds, and each layer of water in depth seems to have its own varieties, thus resembling the changes which take place according to elevation in the organized portions of the land.

The animals are among the mightiest and among the smallest. There are swimming beasts, as whales, seals, and walruses ; there are fishes of various kinds and sizes,

General Introduction.

o

crustaceans, soft or jelly fishes, the molluscs, down to those creatures resembling live plants — the zoophytes or corallines, which partake of the qualities of plant, animal, and mammal. All these are peculiar to the sea or the fresh waters ; and the ocean has its marine plants — seaweeds, which remain growing on the ground shoals, or rise to the surface and then float. These, too, have many useful or economic applications.

It is not our purpose to speak of the inhabitants of the ocean generally, but only to restrict the investigation to those which are of some use to man.

Pliny enumerated but 94 species of fish ; Linnaeus increased the number to 478 ; but recent naturalists have described over 13,000 species, one-tenth of which confine themselves to the fresh waters.

The human race derives almost incalculable benefits from them, as is evidenced by the extent and value of the river, coast, and sea fisheries of the world.

The sea, as Commander Maury well observes, has its offices and duties to perform. So may its inhabitants ; consequently he who undertakes to study its phenomena must cease to regard it as a waste of waters. He must look upon it as a part of the exquisite machinery by which the harmonies of nature are preserved, and then he will begin to perceive the developments of order and the evidence of design, which make it a most beautiful and interesting subject for contemplation.

The harvest of the sea has not yet been attended to and garnered to the same extent as the land. Some nations, as the Chinese, have, it is true, long given close attention to the profitable utilization of its commercial products, and several European nations and the Americans have also prosecuted certain fisheries ; but systematic and scientific management has only of late years been specially directed to the various branches which have been termed pisciculture, aquiculture, and ostreiculture, and the transfer of the fishes of one locality to those of another district.

In respect of fish, no natural cause prevents their coexistence in the greatest abundance with man in his highest state of civilization and refinement, in the midst of the greatest agricultural or manufacturing opulence.

Easily scared in the first instance by unusual sights — for it has been proved, by a series of curious and interesting experiments on the trout, that most kinds of fish are insensible to sounds — the natives of the water are speedily reconciled to appearances, which become habitual when found to be connected with no danger.

By all civilized and commercial nations — especially the Dutch, the English, the Americans, and the French — the products of the sea have been accounted fully as important as those of the land ; because they not only afford cheap, nutritious, and abundant food for the people, but contribute largely, moreover, to the national resources, and to the maintenance of a maritime ascendancy. The Americans and French offer bounties to their fishermen, which of course tells against the fisheries in British America.

France pays about 540,000 francs a year, averaging about £2 to each man engaged in the fishery. This is an expensive process, but it is alleged that it would cost twice as much to train an equal number of men for the navy in any other way. In 1861 a French commission, appointed to inquire into the deep-sea fisheries, said in their report, “ It is on fisheries that at this day repose all the most serious hopes of our maritime enlistments,” and it was

General Introduction.

added that “ no other school can compare with this in preparing them so well, and in numbers so important, for the service of the navy.” These bounties are also defended on the ground that the French pursue the cod fishery at a great disadvantage of distance, and from having no possessions in the neighbourhood except two rocky islets.

The fishery question is of urgent consequence to the people generally. Our population is increasing rapidly ; cities and towns are gradually covering fields which used to be available for agriculture ; and although steam-farming is increasing the efficiency of husbandry labour, it cannot possibly augment the supply of home-grown food so rapidly as the bread-eaters increase in number. Fish is among the articles of diet which are too little familiarized among us, and any information ought to be welcomed which increases our knowledge of fishing grounds within reach of England.

That the supply of fish is most abundant, and indeed inexhaustible, on all our coasts, has never been called in question. “ The coasts of Great Britain,” says Sir John Boroughs, “doe yield such a continued sea-harvest of gain and benefit to all those that with diligence doe labour in the same, that no time or season in the yeare passeth away without some apparent meanes of profitable employment, especially to such as apply themselves to fishing ; which from the beginning of the yeare unto the latter end, continueth upon some part or other of our coastes, and these in such infinite shoales and multitudes of fishes are offered to the takers, as may justly move admiration, not only to strangers, but to those that daily bee employed amongst them.” That this harvest, ripe for gathering at all seasons of the year, without the labour of tillage, without expense of seed or manure, without the payment of rent or taxes, is inexhaustible, the extraordinary fecundity of the most valuable species of fish would alone afford abundant proof.

In spite, however, of this large supply of wholesome, palatable, and nutritious food, yielded by the surrounding seas of Great Britain, every acre of which is infinitely more productive than the same quantity of the richest land ; notwithstanding that these salt-water fields are perpetually “ white to the harvest,” it is a remarkable fact that, in the inland and middle counties of England, the labouring classes scarcely know the taste of fish, which of late years has become a scarce article, even in some of the maritime counties. Formerly salmon, whilst in season, was the common food of all ranks in the northern counties bordering on the sea, and in most parts of Wales, and what could not be used fresh was salted for winter consumption ; there was scarcely a family in the neighbourhood of a seaport or salmon fishery that did not lay up a supply of pickled salmon for the winter.

The produce of the sea around our coasts bears a far higher proportion to that of the land than is generally imagined. The most frequented fishing grounds are much more prolific of food than the same extent of the richest land. Once in the year an acre of good land carefully tilled produces a ton of corn, or two or three cwts. of meat or cheese. The same area at the bottom of the sea on the best fishing grounds yields a greater weight of food to the persevering fisherman every week in the year. Five vessels belonging to the same owner, in a single night’s fishing, have brought in 17 tons weight of fish, an amount of wholesome food equal in weight to that of 50 cattle, or 300 sheep. The ground which these vessels covered

Genei'al Introdtiction.

during the night’s fishing could not have exceeded an area of 50 acres.

Large as is the present supply of fish, and considerable the refuse of our fisheries as manure, much greater things are yet to be accomplished in this way, in both our supply of food, and of fertilizers for our land. The increasing scarcity and high price of butcher’s meat leaves no doubt that a great field is open for the application of increased capital and skill to our sea-fisheries. Though the supply of fish to Billingsgate is constantly increasing, it fails to keep pace with the demand. The well-known fishing grounds of the North Sea are yet only partially fished. The Dogger Bank, which has an area of several hundred square miles, and is most prolific of fish, is to a great extent unworked by the trawlers, and new grounds are still being discovered where fish are found in great abundance. Between England and the continent the average depth of the German Ocean is 90 feet. One-fifth of it is occupied by banks, which are always being added to by the muddy deposits of the rivers of both countries. In extent they are equal to the superficial area of Ireland. To these banks the animals of the ocean chiefly resort, and this great and prolific field is free to the industry of all.

It was stated by a recent writer in Blackwood s Magazine that no department of British industry has received such a remarkable impulse from railways as the sea-fisheries of the United Kingdom. They have, in fact, completely revolutionized it. Before the Eastern Counties Railway was constructed, the transport of fish from Yarmouth to London was effected by light vans drawn by post-horses, and the quantity amounted to about 2000 tons a year. Nearly double that quantity is now conveyed to London and the great manufacturing towns in the course

8 The Co77imercial Products of the Sea.

of a fortnight. During the year 1853, the ajtnus ^nirabilis of the Yarmouth fishery, 12,000 tons of fresh herrings alone were despatched from that place to London and the provinces. At Grimsby the quantity of fish landed in 1872, and transmitted by rail, averaged 600 tons a week, or at the rate of more than 31,000 tons a year. The prodigious quantity of wholesome food now daily forwarded into the interior of the country from our principal fishing stations almost exceeds belief. The station-master of Lowestoft informed the Royal Commission of 1864 that in the two preceding years he had often despatched from that town 100 truck-loads of fish a day, each truck containing from three to four tons. From 4000 to 5000 tons of herrings, and 1000 tons of other fish, have been sent by railway from the town of Dunbar alone in the course of a single week into the interior of Scotland. Before this rapid mode of transport was invented, the consumption of fresh fish was restricted to the seaboard, the metropolis, and a few of the most considerable provincial towns. To the mass of our island population the red herring was the only representative of sea-fish which ever met their eyes ; now there is scarcely a hamlet in which the poor man’s frugal dinner is not occasionally varied by a dish of fresh herrings or some other cheap fish, which the facilities of transit from the coast have brought to his door. The increase of fishing power brought of late years to bear upon the sea is equally remarkable. In 1814 only five vessels were fitted out as deep-sea trawlers from Yarmouth, and not one from any other port of the United Kingdom. There cannot now be less, on the most moderate estimate, than 1000 sea-going trawlers, hailing from British ports and working in the North Sea, and certainly not less than 300 in the F.nglish Channel, and 100 in the Irish Sea. For

General Introduction.

many years there has been a gradual increase in the number of fishing smacks in every port of the United Kingdom.

Fish, crayfish, and many other marine products form an easily digestible and pleasant food, which, it is maintained, is also calculated to stimulate mental activity. Civilized nations cannot abstain from this important aliment without detriment to themselves. Fish, even without any elaborate dressing, form a good and easily prepared meal for the labouring classes. Their flesh contains as large an amount of protein as pork ; lOO lbs. of fish flesh contains as much nourishing matter as 200 lbs. of wheat bread or 700 lbs. of potatoes. It is an essential advantage of the fisheries that their products supply delicacies for the tables of the rich and wholesome cheap food for the poorer classes.

According to calculations made some years ago, the daily consumption of fish per head amounted to one-seventh of a pound in London, one-twentieth of a pound in Paris, and one-fortieth of a pound in Berlin.

The great importance of fish as an article of food may be clearly shown by a comparison of the total supply of fish to London in the course of a single year. At this time there are between 800 and 900 trawl vessels engaged in supplying the London market with fish ; and assuming the annual take for each to average 90 tons, this would give a total of some 80,000 tons of trawled fish. This quantity is irrespective of the vast quantities of herrings, sprats, shell-fish, and descriptions of fish which are supplied by other modes of fishing. On the east coast of England, and in the London fish-market, the trade divide the fish into two classes — “ prime ” and “ offal.” The “ prime ” comprise sole, turbot, brill, and cod. The “ offal ” are chiefly haddock, plaice, and whiting. The term “ offal ”

lo The Commercial Products of the Sea.

seems to have been introduced when the demand for fish and the means of conveying it to market were much more limited than at present, and when it was therefore often found necessary to throw overboard much of the less valuable descriptions, which could not bear the cost of transport. The use of the word “ offal ” may now be held to signify the more plentiful and lower-priced class of fish, which finds its way in the greatest abundance to the large towns. The proportion of “prime ” and “offal ” fish caught by the trawl varies considerably, but may be taken at an average of one-fourth “ prime ” to three-fourths of “ offal.’’ Of “prime,” the sole seems to be the general favourite. It is more eaten in London than any other description of “ prime” fish, and during the summer a considerable supply is sent daily from the London fish-market to Paris.

Notwithstanding the enormous increase which has taken place in the population of the metropolis during the last twenty years, it is very questionable if the weight of fish annually received has not actually diminished. The falling off in the supplies which reach us by water is very remarkable. In 1848 it amounted to 108,739 tons; but in 1871 it fell to 44,077 tons. This reduction has been gradual but continuous from year to year. The quantity brought to town by railway has, on the other hand, increased, but hardly in the ratio of the diminution by water. There are no statistics of our fish supplies by rail available prior to 1865, but the quantity which reached us in this way in 1871 was 72,386 tons. The fish imports into London by water were in —

Tons.

1871 44,077

The total weight of fish brought to London by water and rail was in —

General Introduction.

1 1

•

Tons.

... 132,004

• ••

.. .

122,523

..

... 122,287

113,782

• ••

117,095

...

116,463

Our imports of fish from abroad have largely increased, as will be seen by the following figures, giving the value : —

1876 1.459,974

Of the imports in 1876, 966,119 cwt. — about one-third — was fresh fish not of British taking.

We also imported in 1876 train oil or blubber to the value of ^445,262, spermaceti or head matter valued at ^^^290,3 59, and seal-skins value ;^2 19,540, making a total of ^^2,415,135. This is exclusive of sardines, anchovies, caviare, oysters and shell-fish, pearls, mother-of-pearl, tortoise-shell, coral, sponges, and other articles obtained from the fisheries, which would swell up the aggregate to over ;^3,000,000 of products obtained from the sea.

We exported in that year, of British produce : —

Salmon to the value of ... ... ... ;iC39,o83

^^952,804

In the last quarter of a century the Irish' fisheries have declined by fully one-half in the number of boats and men employed. In 1870 there were stated to be under 9,000 vessels and boats, and 38,000 men and boys. Owing to the numerous indentations, the coast line of Ireland is

The Comme7'cial Products of tiu Sea.

estimated at upwards of 2500 miles. The length along which the more important herring and mackerel fisheries are carried on does not, however, exceed 250 miles, and the value of the capture of these — ;^^330,ooo — amounts to fully two-thirds of all the fish taken around the coast. When, therefore, it is considered that on the remaining 2250 miles of coast not more than £150,000 of fish is taken, it will be understood why an equal amount of cured fish has to be imported from America and other foreign countries.

The latest official report on the Irish fisheries shows that, exclusive of the home consumption in 1876, fish were shipped to England to the value of ^^"504,7 19, thus divided : —

The number of craft of all kinds engaged off Ireland in fishing for sale, in 1876, was returned at 5965, with crews of 22,773 920 boys. In Scotland, in the

same year, the number of boats was 14,547 of 106,440 tons, with crews of 45,263, and there were as many more other persons employed as curers, coopers, etc. • The value of the boats was estimated at ;£’455,8ii, of the nets ;^563,8i i, and of the lines 108,347, making a total of 1,127,994.

We have official annual reports respecting the fisheries of Ireland and Scotland; but the collection of returns for England was discontinued with 1850, at the same time that the branding and punching of the barrels of cod and ling ceased. We are not able, therefore, to form any very accurate estimate of the extent and progress of the coast fisheries for England and Wales.

The immense' value of the fisheries of British North

General Introduction.

n

America will be seen by a glance at the following figures. About lOOO decked vessels and 17,000 open boats are engaged in fishing within the four provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario ; for the other parts of the Canadian Dominion we have no authentic details. 42,000 men are actually engaged in fishing, while 200,000 persons are estimated to be supported almost entirely by this industry in its various branches. The annual produce of the fishery of these four provinces is about £2,ooofXX), and the boats, nets, and other instruments represent a capital of over ;^^6oo,ooo. In Nova Scotia alone there are 9500 vessels and boats engaged in the fisheries, valued at ;£^2 10,000, manned by 19,000 men, with nets, etc., to the value of ;£’i 14,000.

The fisheries are not only of importance to us in consequence of the vast amount of wealth that can be drawn from the deep, apparently without diminution, or exhausting its source, but because by this means a body of able and hardy seamen may be found to conduct the commerce of a maritime country during peace, and to become its gallant defenders on the ocean in time of war. This inexhaustible source of national wealth and greatness appertains in an especial manner to the British Possessions in the northern hemisphere, and has long excited the rivalry of the citizens of the New England States, who are aided by bounties granted by the general Government.

The Atlantic fishing ground situated in British waters reaches from the Bay of Fundy along the southern coast of Nova Scotia, around Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island, and embracing the Bay of Chaleur, extends to the Island of Anticosta and Newfoundland, the coast of Labrador, and the Magdalen Islands. There is probably no part of the world where such extensive and valuable fisheries are to be found, as within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nature has bountifully provided within its waters the utmost abundance of those fish which are of the greatest importance to man, as affording not only nutritious and wholesome food, but also the means of profitable employment. These fisheries are prosecuted as well in the open waters of the gulf, as within every bay, harbour, creek, cove, and inlet in connection with it.

Quebec possesses, in the river and gulf of St. Lawrence, an extent of coast of looo miles, where the cod, herring, mackerel, salmon, and other fisheries are carried on successfully. In the men that sail the fishing fleets of British North America, we see the elements of a very powerful marine, which will be found invaluable in times of national danger.

The following figures show the value of the exports only, the produce of the fisheries of our North American colonies for the year 1873 : —

Canada ...

New Bninswick

• ••

70,823

Nova Scotia

... 717.301

Prince Edward Island

200,100

British Columbia ...

406,000

Newfoundland

... 1,631,086

In the previous year it was 1,000,000 more, without British Columbia, of which the return was not given. This return merely assumes the market value of the products in the colonies ; but in the foreign markets to which they are sent they will realize a fourth or a fifth more, and this, be it observed, is exclusive of the large local consumption of fish, oil, etc.

Boston is the fish-market of the United States ; and

General Introduction.

the product of the New England fishery is estimated at ;£'i,6oo,ooo yearly, of which Boston alone handles more than half.