Fishing Industry

During 1922-23 the fishing industry has recovered to prosperity from a dangerous situation reached during the post-War slump. New England vessel fisheries report a 6% increase in the catch over that of the preceding year, 45% more salmon was packed on the Pacific coast, and substantial advances were registered in the packing of Maine and California sardines and tuna, as well as in the production of fish oil and byproducts.

During 1923 over 120,000,000 pounds of fresh fish have been landed at the port of Boston alone, and a distinct business revival is reported in the old fishing town of Gloucester.

One curious result of liquor smuggling and bootlegging activities along the Atlantic coast between Boston and Baltimore has been a marked rise in the retail price for fresh fish of almost all kinds because fishermen and boats here found rum-running so much more profitable than fishing, that adequate supplies of fish can be obtained only by raising prices right and left. Whether or not this novel explanation is a fish story remains for the Coast Guard to discover; as defensive tactics by dealers it evidently has psychological merit, since no one has yet declared fish dealers were profiteers, or demanded that they be "regulated."