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pounds, daily, or twelve hundred million millions of fish and three hundred thousand millions of pounds annually, are much below the real figures. This estimate is for the period of four months in the middle of the summer and fall, and for the coast of New England only. The calculation allows ten fish, or two and one-half pounds, daily, to each bluefish, and estimates the number of these corsairs of the sea in New England waters at one thousand million. This calculation includes only those fish which exceed three pounds in weight, taking no account of those of a smaller size, which are at least a hundred-fold more uumerous, and fully as voracious, and which prey upon the young fish.

Such estimates profess to be nothing more than vague approximations, but are legitimate in their way, enabling us to appreciate more clearly the luxuriance of marine life. The application of similar methods of calculation to the menhaden would be much more difficult. At least one-fourth of the fish devoured by bluefish on the shores of New England are probably menhaden, and as many more are no doubt destroyed by squeteague, bonito, sharks, horse-mackerel, cod, and other predaceous species. The waters of New England wash only one-fourth of the extent of coast upon which the menhaden is abundant, and the estimate of Professor Baird covers only one-fourth of the entire year. Bluefish are abundant for at least half the year as far south as the Carolinas, and commit terrible havoc among the menhaden in the winter months. Farther south they are the favorite food of other species, chief among which are the sea-trout (Cynoscion carolinensis). Then there are the schools of porpoises and the whales, which pursue the herded menhaden with wholesale destruction.

An estimate of the annual destruction of menhaden.

149. Is it too much, then, to multiply the three hundred millions of millions of menhaden probably consumed by the full-grown bluefish alone on the coast of New England in the summer months by ten? This would allow three thousand millions of millions of menhaden, old and young, annually destroyed in the waters of the United States, in comparison with which the number annually taken by man is perfectly insignificant. This estimate will seem extravagant at first sight, but I believe that it will be found a very moderate one by any who may take the pains to investigate the question for themselves.

The place of the menhaden in nature.

150. It is not hard to surmise the menbaden's place in nature; swarming our waters in countless myriads, swimming in closely-packed, unwieldy masses, helpless as flocks of sheep, close to the surface and at the mercy of any enemy, destitute of means of defense or offense, their mission is unmistakably to be eaten. In the economy of nature certain orders of terrestrial animals, feeding entirely upon vegetable sub

stances, seem intended for one purpose-to elaborate simpler materials into the nitrogenous substances necessary for the food of other animals which are wholly or in part carnivorous in their diet. So the menhaden, deriving its own subsistence from otherwise unutilized organic matter, is pre-eminently a meat-producing machine. Man takes from the water annually six or seven hundred millions of these fish, weighing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand tons, but his indebted ness to the menhaden does not end here. When he brings upon his table bluefish, bonitos, weak fish, swordfish, bass, codfish, what is he eating? Usually nothing but menhaden!

27.-MAN AND THE FISHERIES.

Former allusions to the influence of the fisheries.

151. I have remarked above (paragraph 117) that the menhaden appears to be the most abundant species on the eastern coast of the United States, and that there is no evidence of any permanent decrease in its numbers, although from year to year there are fluctuations in their numerical representation.

I have also discussed (paragraph 102) the question of the alleged change in their habits from the tendency of seine-fishing to drive them farther from this coast. Upon this question there can be no decided judgment at present. In paragraph 118, I have spoken of the slight probability of decrease in future.

Future increase or decrease.

152. Whether there is any likelihood that the myriads which now swarm our waters will ever be perceptibly diminished by the loss of six or seven hundred millions of their number annually I will not presume to say. I simply call attention to the fact that spawning fish are apparently never taken in the nets. It is the opinion of many authorities that if fish are not interfered with at the time when they are reproducing their kind there is no great probability of decreasing their number.

Alleged destruction of the fisheries.

153. The Commissioners of Fisheries of the State of New York, Messrs. Horatio Seymour, Edward M. Smith, and Robert B. Roosevelt, in their report for the year 1874* (p. 31), speaking of the depletion of the waters of Great South Bay, remark:

"Last season was favorable for the pound-fishermen, in the circumstance that the sharks did not destroy their nets. The result was, that there was absolutely no fishing inside the bay the entire summer. Usually, by the month of August, they have to move from the inlet to

* Report | of the | Commissioners of Fisheries | of the | State of New York. | Transmitted to the legislature, February 1, 1875. | - | Albany: | Weed, Parsons and Company, Printers. | 1875. | 8vo. pp. 61.

safer quarters, and the weak fish get in sufficiently to furnish fair fishing, and to promise a continuance of the supply. But that year the pounds remained undisturbed, and not even the weakfish could find an entrance. Formerly moss-bunkers, or bonyfish which are manufactured into oil and manure, frequented the bay and brought bluefish after them. They are the favorite food of the latter. They have been the foundation for quite a business in that part of our State, a number of factories having been established along the shore. Now they are never taken inside the bay, and the bluefish, whether for the reason that their food is wanted, or on account of their natural shyness, are also rarely seen inside. The latter are still caught in seines at some of the inlets, but seem to be stopped by the pound-nets, or else return of their own accord to the ocean. They do not enter the pound-nets, being seldom taken in them. This would go to show that they are frightened away; that when they meet the wings of the net they do not attempt to pass around it, but simply retrace their steps to safer quarters. The loss thus inflicted on the residents along the bay, without benefit to any one, is incalculable."

Comments upon these allegations.

154. It is the commonly received opinion that purse-net fishing is des tined eventually to destroy all the menhaden in our waters. Many decided views to this effect have been advanced by correspondents. All that can be said at present is that the commonly received opinion has not yet been proved to be true. The same may be said regarding poundnet fishing. It is doubtless true that the fisheries in a given locality may deplete the waters of the immediate region in which they are prosecuted. The cod and halibut may be fished for upon a single bank until the local supply is exhausted. This depletion does not, however, necessarily affect the aggregate numbers upon the entire coast.

The barrier of pounds will doubtless prevent the menhaden from enter. ing a body of water like the Great South Bay, but this does not necessarily have any effect upon the aggregate representation of the species in the coast waters. The small number of fish consumed by man proportionately to the number consumed by other fishes has been alluded to.

A writer in Chambers's Journal estimates the herring eating power of the Solan goose as follows: "Say that the island of St. Kilda has a population of 200,000 of these birds, and they feed there for seven months; let us also suppose that each bird, or its young ones, eat only five herrings per diem; that gives a sum total of one million of these fish, and counting the days in the seven months from March to September as 214, that figure may be taken to represent in millions the quantity of herrings annually devoured by these birds. It has been calculated that the cod and ling in the seas and friths around Scotland would devour more herrings than could be caught by 50,000 fishermen. We have examined the internal economy of a codfish, which contained in its stomach no less than eleven full grown herrings."

Professor Hind's unwarranted statements.

155. A voice of warning comes to us from the provinces. Professor Hind writes: "It is not the fishermen alone who diminish the value of the waters of the United States as food producers, it is the agriculturist, the manufacturer, and the lumberer. If the supplies directly or indirectly afforded by British-American coastal fisheries were suddenly annihilated, the effect of the inquiries instituted under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries would be at once diverted against the fish-oil and fish-guano manufacturers as well as the lumbering and other interests, which have so diminished the anadromous species and destroyed the cod-fisheries on the New England coast. What with the ravages of the bluefish and the demands of the industrial interests named, the drain upon the United States waters is far beyond the natural resources of the limited area in which the cod, the bake, the halibut, and other deep-sea fish are sought. Hence recourse must be had to British-American waters or the open sea remote from the coast of the United States, and bait must be obtained to secure remunerative fares. Without this bait the fishery would be commercially impossible; with it, it becomes not only renumerative, but permits those special fisheries which have fish-oil and fish-guano as their object to go on without that legislative interference which would otherwise be invoked by a powerful interest contemplating impending ruin and discerning its cause."*

Comment is unnecessary. The facts above stated alone are a sufficient commentary.

Protective legislation in Maine.

156. As this memoir goes to press, the question of legislative restrictions of the menhaden fisheries is being agitated in Maine. One of the valuable results of this discussion has been the publication of Mr. Maddock's report upon "The Menhaden Fishery of Maine," which is intended to counteract the statements of the advocates of more stringent laws. The proposed law is intended to prohibit fishing with seines in waters within three miles of the shore. Mr. Maddock's remarks, quoted below, seem very sensible and temperate, and I am prepared to indorse them: "In fact, where all the data point to the conclusion that the menhaden while on our coast are being destroyed by predaceous enemies in greater numbers every day than by man with all his appliances in a whole season, it would seem sheer unreason to establish a petty restriction of the catch lest the stock should be ultimately exhausted.

"No other State will be guilty of such folly, even if we should allow our own to be. The effect of restricting the fishery, as referred to, would be to drive the oil and guano manufacture and those engaged in it out of the State, with all their capital and equipment, and to extinguish the industrial activities set in operation by their business. The time for *HIND, op. cit., p. 142.

Other

restriction will be when restriction has been shown to be needed. States have made a trial of the interference policy in this same matter and have abandoned it as uncalled for and unwise.

"The complaint that the seines 'scare' the edible fish from the interior waters may be dismissed as too trivial for notice. If the limited operations of seining inshore scare the fish out, much more should the far more extended operations outside scare them in. The same weight is to be attached to the charge that the seines injure the shad fishery by capturing the fish. The total number of shad caught by all the members of the Oil and Guano Association combined does not amount to over two hundred barrels per year. Salmon are never caught in their seines."

I. THE MENHADEN FISHERIES.

28. THE FISHING GROUNDS.

The location of the fishing grounds.

157. As has been already indicated in the description of the migra tions and movements of the menhaden, there are certain portions of the coast which they frequent more certainly and constantly. These are marked upon the map accompanying this memoir and may be designated as (1) the Booth Bay Region, (2) the Cape Ann Region, (3) the Cape Cod Region, (4) the Narragansett Bay Region, (5) the Long Island Sound Region, (7) the Sandy Hook Region, (S) the Chesapeake Region, and (9) the Hatteras Region.*

Bearing in mind the fact that the menhaden is fond of shallow, brackish waters while the mackerel is not, it is quite curious to remark that their favorite haunts are much the same. Both species are caught most successfully in the great, partially-protected indentations of the coast. Whether it is on account of the calm waters, the abundance of food, or the detention of the schools in these great "pockets," as they may be called, is not apparent. Perhaps all have their influence, probably the latter has the greatest.

In these localities, at different seasons of the year, the fisheries can be most successfully carried on, and here only can they be made profitable.

29.-METHODS OF CAPTURE.

Past and present methods contrasted.

158. Twenty years, ago when the menhaden fisheries were of very small importance, the business of manufacturing oil and guano being still in its infancy the only use for the fish was as a fertilizer in its raw state. This demand was easily supplied by the use of seines and gillnets along the shore, for at that time the habits of the fish were probably very different. They swarmed our bays and inlets, and there is quite good authority for the story that 1,300,000 were once taken with

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* Plate XI.

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