The development of programs of research on marine fisheries begun in 1958 by the Santos group have drawn attention to the necessity of improvement of methods of collecting fishery statistics; although the collections were originally started in 1950, the early years' work were not a high standard, partially due to the high cost of personnel and means. Now, the research is becoming more exacting in its statistical requirements. It may be seen, from the analysis of data presented in this paper, that the São Paulo fishery has been evolving slowly, depending mostly on its own resources. Beginning in 1958, there was a "revolution", the result of adding to the fleet larger vessels, both Brazilian and foreign, which have raised the fishing activities to a level never before achieved. The general tendencies are for fishing in more distant and more productive waters both to the north with long-lines and along the coast to the south with trawls, and the effects of these tendencies have been increases in both the volume and quality of the fishery products landed.