DECREASE OF FOOD-FISHES IN AMERICAN WATERS. 2'.) 



That the menhaden supply is being exhausted needs not the saying. Those who 

 were familiar with the coast waters twenty or thirty years ago and are familiar with 

 them uow will bear testimony to the fact that during the period referred to it was 

 an extraordinary occurrence if, in sailing through them only for the distance of a 

 mile, vast schools of menhaden were not encountered. A paper before me, furnished 

 by a leading menhaden fishery proprietor, states that at times his boats have steamed 

 800 miles along the coast without taking a single fish. Such facts speak for them- 

 selves. This acknowledged scarcity, whatever may be said to the contrary by the 

 menhaden fishermen, can not rightfully be classed among the fluctuations which mark 

 the movements of such migratory fishes as the mackerel, the herring, and others. 

 The decrease has been gradual, keeping even pace, in inverse ratio, with the increase 

 of the menhaden fisheries, and showing conclusively that if there were ten times as 

 many menhaden in the coast waters twenty years ago as now, as there undoubtedly 

 were, the falling off is justly chargeable to the purse net. The injury already done is 

 not. however, remediless. If the purse net were entirely forbidden by law, or its use 

 placed under judicious restrictions, the damage thus tar caused by it might in time 

 be repaired by nature's restorative processes, but as long as the present system is 

 tolerated there is no room for hope of such restoration. 



It is a striking coincidence that the decrease of coast fishes began to manifest 

 itself about the time when menhaden fishing first assumed formidable proportions, 

 and it has kept abreast with the work of extermination until, as has already been 

 stated, there has been a growing decrease of edible fishes, which, as far as inside 

 coast waters are concerned, amounted, during the past summer, to practical extermi- 

 nation, and moreover there never were so few menhaden taken. 



There is another evil connected with menhaden fishing which merits notice. The 

 formidable purse nets, which are usually 100 feet in depth and 1,800 feet in length, 

 capture not only menhaden, but great quantities of edible fish, which, instead of being 

 separated from those valueless for food and sent to market, after the wants of the crew 

 are supplied, are ground up for oil and fertilizers. This is denied by the menhaden 

 ites, but hundreds of witnesses to the truth of the allegation could, if necessary, be 

 furnished — witnesses who would show that bluefish, squeteague, sheepshead, croakers, 

 porgies, striped bass, sea bass, drum, tautog, and nearly every other variety of coast 

 fish are captured by them and utilized as stated. 



Replies to these charges have been attempted, and to those not familiar with the 

 facts they will appear plausible. To illustrate, a single affidavit was read before the 

 Congress in which the affiant, who was understood to be a reporter and a passenger 

 on board a menhaden fishing boat, avers that during the entire trip not more food 

 fish were taken than were needed to supply the table wants of the crew and their only 

 passenger. That such might have been the case is within the range of probabilities. 

 The nets, intentionally or otherwise, may have been cast in waters where edible fish 

 were not plentiful. Therefore, the argument, if an argument it can be called, goes for 

 nothing. 



Again, it was alleged that the proprietors of the boats would be grossly unmind- 

 ful of their interests if, instead of sending the many food-fish said to be taken in their 

 nets to the New York markets, where they would command from 8 to 10 cents a pound, 

 should send them to their factories, where they are worth only a cent or two a pound. 

 That would be poor economy if the food-fishes taken could be disposed of at the prices 



