Fishes as Food for Man 



333 



Variety of Tropical Fishes. In the tropics no one species is 

 represented by enormous numbers of individuals as is the case 

 in colder regions. On the other hand, the number of species 

 regarded as food-fishes is much greater in any given port. In 

 Havana, about 350 different -species are sold as food in the mar- 

 kets, and an equal number are found in Honolulu. Upward of 

 600 different species appear in the markets of Japan. In Eng- 

 land, on the contrary, about 50 species make up the list of fishes 

 commonly used as food. Yet the number of individual fishes 

 is probably not greater about Japan or Hawaii than in a similar 

 stretch of British coast. 



Economic Fisheries. Volumes have been written on the eco- 

 nomic value of the different species of fishes, and it is not the 

 purpose of the present work to summarize their contents. 



FIG. 222. Fishing for Ayu with Cormorants in the Tanagawa, near Tokyo. 

 (After photograph by .1. O. Snyder by Sekko Shimada.) 



Equally voluminous is the literature on the subject of catch- 

 ing fishes. It ranges in quality from the quaint wisdom of the 

 " Compleat Angler" and the delicate wit of " Little Rivers " to 

 elaborate discussions of the most economic and effective forms 

 and methods, of the beam-trawl, the purse-seine, and the cod- 



