■ DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL NOTES ON THE SPECIES 283 



European hake, but with a characteristic acceleration due to the American fishermen having a totally 

 undepleted stock to deal with when modern methods of capture and treatment of the catch were 

 introduced. In dealing with this species it is important to realize that much of the earlier American 

 and Canadian literature is vitiated by confusion between it and several species of Urophysis (Gadidae 

 which are called ' hake ' with or without distinguishing prefixes along those coasts. The once important 

 bv-product trade in ' hake-sounds ' for isinglass was based on these, and not on Merluccius. 



In the early days silver hake were regarded as rubbish by the New England fishermen, and also 

 as a great nuisance when large numbers were caught in mackerel nets (Goode et ai, 1884 pp. 240-3) and 

 had to be discarded. Their inshore migration in summer appears to be even more marked than that ot the 

 European species, and they frequently become stranded in pursuit of prey. At times they were used for 

 manure (Bigelow and Welsh, ig-S, PP- 386-96), and as recently as 1895 only 37,000 lb. were marketed 

 from Massachusetts and Maine. By 1919 more than 14 million lb. were sold, and even a that da e 

 most were still caught in traps and weirs, the price being too low for the offshore fishermen to bring m 

 those they captured. Since then the demand has increased enormously with the development of large 

 cold stores, especially in the mid-western states. From the Statistical Digest No. 4 of the U.S. Bureau 

 of Fisheries (i94o)-a mine of fascinating information-it can be seen that nearly 50 million lb. of 

 M.^SLn. were marketed m that year, more than 80O/. of the total coming from the New England 

 States. Nearly half this catch was frozen (forming 11% of the total frozen fishery produce of the 

 country). It has, indeed, become the most important single species of the frozen fish trade. This rapid 

 develo ment ha; synchronized with a big change in fishing methods, more being ^^^^^^^ZZ^r 

 than in pound-nets now, except in New Jersey and Rhode Island. One wonders whether the over 

 fishing problem may not soon become evident with the New England whiting ; 



M capensis (Castelnau), which is known in South Africa as stockfish or stokvisch has been the 

 stapk of the modern trawling industry developed in that country. In the absence of adequate data 

 ^ets stm some room for doubt as to whether the distinction between this and the Eu-p^anha -s 

 sufficient for M. capensis to be regarded as a separate species (Barnard, 1925, P- 3^0). The bouth 

 Afric n form ranges from Angola to Natal, in deeper waters towards the equatona limits of its range 

 on dthe side of L continent. It may be noted that this seems to be a general rule for all species o 

 rltU and for very many other fish besides. There are no statistics ^J^^^/ ^f ^^^ ^^^^ 

 l^nrlinps to enable one to trace the growth of the modern fishery at the Cape, but the figures tor 

 Tat; uH^he^ by von Bonde (^934) leave one in no doubt as to the i-P^^-;^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 5n that period the catch was more than one-third of the total weight of fish landed: some 7850 tons 

 nf ctnrkfish worth ovcr / 1 ^0,000 per annum. r ^^ 7 



Sorrjes relating .0 the siz^ and value of the fisheries for these three speces of S^^-^"-"-" 

 sumrrized n Table ,0 below. They reveal truly astonishing difTerences tn the value of the fi h ,n 

 hecTu 1 concerned. The British catch used to be nearly double that 0^*= An^encan wh,,.„g 

 fishery but its value at first sale was nearly eight times as great, weight for we.ght. The South A rtcan 

 ctchw- about 40% of the weight of the American catch, with the value at first ^k micrn,.d,.v. 

 bettrthTprici obtained in the other two countries: about 3! times the value °f *e A^- and 

 tr,hrhai?the value of hake landed in Britain. While the difference between Bnt.sh and South 

 A i an prict m yTn part be explained by the employment of cheap coloured labour tn South Afnca 

 fhr"ch chlper Amertcan prices point to profound differences in eeonomtc cond.t.ons wh.ch 

 cannot be understood without first-hand knowledge of the ' whnmg trade. 



Twould seem therefore, that while it is obviously desirable to exam.ne our b.ologtcal dat con- 

 It would seem, me Knowledge accumulated concernmg the speces already 



