Fishes of the Western Nortli Atlantic 357 



fishermen, eat them in season as a common article of diet. Considerable quantities are 

 often "corned" (salted) for home use during winter, and the writer knows from first- 

 hand experience that these fish are delicious when smoked. They were canned to a 

 limited extent for export during the last war, and a small quantity is still canned for 

 home consumption. 



Because of their abundance, large numbers are available for reduction to oil, fish 

 meal, and fish scrap; the Atlantic Menhaden fishery is one of the most valuable of 

 our fish industries. The catch for 1945 amounted to 759,073,820 pounds, valued at 

 $ 11,202,127 (Canned Fish and Byproducts, U. S. Fish Wildl. Serv., 1945: 15); of 

 this amount, 120,493,920 pounds were credited to Florida, 142,209,510 to North 

 Carolina, 77,232,910 to Virginia, 280,463,340 to Delaware, and 138,584,140 to New 

 Jersey. For 1950 through 1953, the approximate catches have been as follows: between 

 9,304,000 and 39,900,000 pounds for New England, mostly taken south and west 

 of Cape Cod; between 372,950,000 and 857,584,000 pounds for the Middle Atlantic 

 states; 92,374,000 for Chesapeake Bay; and between 147,125,000 and 314,841,000 

 pounds for the South Atlantic states. In 1953 the total catch was 1,259,031,000 

 pounds. 



Because of the great fluctuations in catch from year to year, the catch for a single 

 year, or even for many successive years, may not indicate their actual abundance. 

 Furthermore, since the fish are not equally fat every year, or at all times when 

 available, equal quantities of fish (pounds) do not always yield equal quantities of oil 

 (gallons), the most valuable product obtained from these fish. Thus the value of a given 

 catch depends to a large extent upon the amount of oil it yields. In general, large fish 

 yield more oil than small ones. For example, at Beaufort, North Carolina, the summer 

 "runs," consisting of small to medium-sized fish, yield so little oil that they are con- 

 sidered scarcely worth handling, but the fall runs, consisting of large and fat gravid 

 fish, make the industry profitable. 



In discussing this subject, Greer (^48: 24)^* wrote as follows in 191 5: 



The yield of oil varies greatly on different parts of the coast, and also from year to year and at different 

 seasons. The fish are always larger and fatter during the fall than at any other season, consequently there is a 

 greater yield of oil during that period. The fish taken from northern waters produce more than those taken from 

 southern waters; the writer visited one of the northern factories during August 191 3, and was told that a short 

 time previous to his visit they had made 20 gallons, and that the average yield for July had been 16.5 gallons 

 per 1,000 fish.^^ The maximum for the Middle Atlantic States is about 15 gallons, though it usually is less; 

 in the early part of the season it is very much less than that amount. The South Atlantic fish rarely produce more 

 than 8 gallons per 1,000 fish, and frequently it is less than i gallon during the early spring fishing. The average 

 number of gallons of oil made from 1,000 fish during the season of 1912 was as follows: Connecticut 11.73; 

 New York 11.36; New Jersey 5.08; Delaware 7.72; Virginia 3.72; and North Carolina 1.98. 



38. This paper, entitled "The Menhaden Industry on the Atlantic Coast," although written before the manufacture 

 of fish meal for stock and poultry feed, contains much valuable information concerning the history of the industry, 

 the construction of factories, the machinery used in these reduction plants, the vessels employed, the methods of 

 fishing, their reduction, men employed, etc. 



39. The fish generally are measured, and the measure used is said to contain 1,000 fish, no account being taken of the 

 size of fish. Thus, the measure arbitrarily contains 1,000 fish regardless of whether they are 6 or 12 inches long. 

 In converting the number of fish to pounds, the factor 0.67 is used in the statistical division of the U. S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service. That is, the number of fish is multiplied by o.ffj. 



