298 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



appear small and shrunk when compared with the normal liver of a freshly killed 

 healthy fish. This codfish, if not previously dead, is then stunned with a blow from a 

 big - mallet, and thus, whilst insensible, crimping is alleged to be carried on. As the 

 sensibility never returns there is practically no cruelty. Skate are said sometimes 

 whilst still alive to be crimped by fishmongers. So long as cod will "crimp" or show 

 muscular contraction it is called in the fish trade " live cod," an intentional misrep- 

 resentation. Out of its healthy season, a woolly, watery codfish is often appropriately 

 termed by the fishermen " churchyard " cod. Recollecting these facts, the familiar dry, 

 flabby, cottony taste of the vaunted best prime " live " codfish so often sold at Billings- 

 gate and elsewhere is easily explained. Skinning live eels and gutting live fish, 

 causing avoidable, useless torture, are occasionally practiced. 



In welled boats halibuts are hung up by their tails, under the delusion that in 

 these artificial conditions the fish will enjoy longer lives and that their flesh will 

 keep better fresh for the market. These local injuries often actually cut through the 

 soft parts till the bone is exposed. As to the " alleged habits of halibuts at the bottom 

 of the sea, arranged in parallel rows, waiting and watching for small fish and shell- 

 fish: when failing such food supplies, the hungry halibut attacks and eats the tail of 

 its nearest neighbor, which explains the frequently injured and absent tail of freshly 

 caught halibut." This tail cannibalism on the part of the halibut is an absurd inven- 

 tion to hide the cruelties practiced in welled smacks. 



Lobsters and crabs are often kept alive on wet seaweed or ferns, and live on an 

 average in hampers for a couple of days, starving before they reach the fishmonger, 

 who frequently stores them, if not sold, till they die of starvation. Lobsters and crabs 

 thus starved to death lose weight, firmness, taste, and flavor, and immediately on 

 death tend to decompose rapidly, which in such conditions is but slightly diminished 

 by boiling in salted water. Instead of puncturing with a stiletto, wriggled about so 

 as to break up the animal's brain material, and then plunging the crabs and lobsters 

 into boiling water, out of sheer thoughtlessness and careless custom liviug lobsters 

 have been placed in cold water which, while it is being heated up to the boiling point, 

 causes the animal prolonged avoidable torture, for if plunged into boiling water it 

 quickly dies. Previously to boiling, to rid them of sand and dirt, crabs and lobsters 

 should be well washed in fresh flowing water. Spanish fishermen catch a coast crab 

 only to cut off the good-eating coveted claws, and then return the mutilated animal to 

 the sea, to be recaptured if possible upon the reappearance of its developed claws. 



Immediately before its death fishermen scale the red mullet to induce permanent 

 contraction of its superficial pigment cells, causing the fish to become the intense 

 popular red color of the trade. 



Although no fish or shellfish is legally protected against cruelty in this country, 

 and although it is not punishable to boil fish alive, to roast fish alive, to slice fish 

 alive (as turtle used to be in Ceylon, and as some air-breathing fish carried about in 

 earthen pots in China are still), yet it is to be expected that these cruelties will rap- 

 idly disappear as soon as fish-traders find that humanity to animals will benefit their 

 own pockets. Codfish will keep in excellent health and condition if placed in artificial 

 ponds or docks, fed with sea water, as was the custom among the ancient Romans and 

 ancient Egyptians. The present St. Petersburg fish farms or ponds, fed by the river 

 Neva, and where each species of fish has a separate compartment, yield profitable 

 rentals. Lobsters and crabs can be fed on almost any fish refuse. 



