Editing Cape May County, New Jersey (section)

===Fishing and farming===
[[File:Cape May County, New Jersey Municipalities.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Index map of Cape May County municipalities (click to see index key)]]
Fishing has been an important industry in Cape May County since at least the 17th century, when the county's first European settlement was founded as a whaling village. In 1693, whaling proved such a successful industry that [[List of colonial governors of New Jersey|colonial Governor]] [[Andrew Hamilton (New Jersey governor)|Andrew Hamilton]] instituted a 10% tax on whale products. By the mid-1700s, overfishing had diminished the whale population in the region.<ref name="proposed"/> In the early 1800s, shipbuilding was an important industry, which declined by the 1850s.<ref name="survey"/> Fishing remains an important aspect of Cape May County's economy. In 2016, the combined port of Cape May and Wildwood ranked the ninth largest commercial fishing port in the United States as measured by monetary value, as well as the second largest on the east coast, only after [[New Bedford, Massachusetts|New Bedford]]. Fishermen brought in 47 million lbs (21 million kg) of seafood, mainly scallops, worth $85 million (2016 USD).<ref>{{cite news|author=Jack Tomczuk|date=November 26, 2017|title=$85 million commercial fishing industry feeds Cape May County economy|newspaper=The Gazette of Cape May|access-date=March 22, 2018|url=http://www.shorenewstoday.com/cape_may/million-commercial-fishing-industry-feeds-cape-may-county-economy/article_ce588a5b-f1ae-583c-83cd-5081988af611.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323031043/http://www.shorenewstoday.com/cape_may/million-commercial-fishing-industry-feeds-cape-may-county-economy/article_ce588a5b-f1ae-583c-83cd-5081988af611.html|archive-date=March 23, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Region's ports rank highly in NOAA's "Fisheries of the US" report|newspaper=Commercial Fisheries News|date=December 2017|access-date=March 22, 2018|url=http://fish-news.com/cfn/regions-ports-rank-highly-in-noaas-fisheries-of-the-us-report/#sthash.gVd00PEQ.dpbs|archive-date=March 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323030659/http://fish-news.com/cfn/regions-ports-rank-highly-in-noaas-fisheries-of-the-us-report/#sthash.gVd00PEQ.dpbs|url-status=live}}</ref> This was up from $73.7 million in 2009, when the overall market value of the port was estimated at $442 million, making it the fourth most valuable port in the country. In the 1980s, the scallop industry was worth only $15 million in the state of New Jersey. In 1990, laws limiting the catch and area of scallops led to a healthier and steadier population to harvest, which allowed for growth in the industry.<ref>Degener, Richard. [http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_956e1b6a-799a-11de-a3fc-001cc4c03286.html "Port of Cape May reels in $73.7M., climbs to fourth in nation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165908/http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_956e1b6a-799a-11de-a3fc-001cc4c03286.html |date=March 3, 2016 }}, ''[[The Press of Atlantic City]]'', July 26, 2009. Accessed October 3, 2013. "Scallop harvests, boosted by federal regulations that close off huge sections of the ocean to let them grow big and plump, helped the port, which includes docks in Lower Township and Wildwood but none actually in Cape May, move from the eighth largest in the country in 2007 to No. 4 in the nation last year."</ref> Cold Spring Fish and Supply Company provides 500 jobs and is the county's third-largest employer.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cape May, NJ|publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|access-date=June 18, 2018|url=https://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/educational_resources/seafood/ports/cape_may__nj.html|archive-date=June 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618230157/https://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/educational_resources/seafood/ports/cape_may__nj.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Farming became an important industry in the county by the 19th century, when nearly {{convert|70000|acre|ha|abbr=on}}, or about 40% of the county's land area, was involved in farming. The industry's popularity led to the first freight railroad in 1863, and continued to be a fixture of the county's economy until the 1960s.<ref name="proposed"/>
There is an annual [[lima bean]] festival in West Cape May featuring foods made with the locally grown lima beans.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lima Bean Soup |url=https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/lima-bean-soup/ |website=Taste of Home |access-date=December 1, 2019 |archive-date=November 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191126135706/https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/lima-bean-soup/ |url-status=live }}</ref>