A TARPON NURSERY IN HAITI 



as the water-boatmen were present in uncounted 

 millions, and a single scoop with a quart jar secured 

 large numbers. 



The only other mention of an actual nursery of 

 tarpon is in Evermann and Marsh's Fishes of Porto 

 Rico, where we find the following note: "Common 

 about Porto Rico where it evidently breeds, as 

 numerous immature individuals were taken at 

 Hucares and Fajardo. The four examples from 

 Hucares are from 7.5 to 11.5 inches long and were 

 seined in a small brackish pool of dark-colored 

 water, not over five feet deep, in the corner of a 

 mangrove swamp, and at that time (February) 

 entirely separated from the ocean by a narrow 

 strip of land scarcely 25 feet wide. The thirteen 

 others are nearly all very young, of 2.25 to 3.25 

 inches collected at Fajardo.'* A few tarpon, from 

 six to eight inches long, have been taken on the 

 north shore of the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, and 

 Dr. Babcock in his excellent monograph of the 

 tarpon, records a three-inch specimen taken in a 

 cast net on the coast of Texas. He also gives the 

 world's record tarpon as eight feet, with an esti- 

 mated weight of three hundred and fifty pounds. 

 This was taken in a net by a Florida fisherman. 



My discovery of young tarpon in a land-locked 

 lagoon in Haiti suggests that the Porto Rican 

 record is not a casual accident, but a usual pheno- 

 menon in the life of these fish. On account of the 

 shallowness and muddiness of the Haitian lagoon, 

 it would be impossible for an adult tarpon of any 



71 



