358 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



As further evidence of the great value of this extensive fishery, additional data 

 from Greer show that the total catch for 1912, a near banner year, was 1,061,483,750 

 fish (711,435,312 pounds); this catch yielded 6,651,203 gallons of oil valued at 

 $ Ij55I)990 and 88,520 tons of scrap worth $2,138,165; 48 factories, valued at 

 ^ 3)625,983, were in operation; the vessels engaged in the fishery numbered 147, 

 valued at % 3,456,792; and there were 2,159 employees in the factories and 3,735 

 fishermen, drawing a combined wage of $ 1,579,984. 



The value of the fish scrap, now that most of it is used as fish meal for poultry 

 and livestock feed instead of as fertilizer, is considerably greater than it was ; this change 

 in turn produced other changes, for this processing requires quicker and more sanitary 

 handling of the fish, including cooking before decomposition sets in; some changes at 

 the factories were also required, for apparatus had to be installed for drying the residue 

 quickly after the oil had been extracted. 



Fluctuations in Abundance. No species has been more erratic in its appearances along 

 the coast than B. tyrannus. For example, in 1 9 1 1 and in 1 9 1 2 large catches were made 

 at Beaufort, the center of this fluctuating industry in North Carolina, but then these 

 near banner years were followed by several exceptionally lean years, which forced 

 some of the local operators into bankruptcy. However, in 191 8 the fish were back 

 again. Even though the annual catches (without adjustment for variations in fishing 

 effort) have fluctuated since that time from 54,476,000 pounds in 1932 to 181,968,000 

 pounds in 1939, there has been no complete failure in any year since the period 

 1913-1916. 



Although at least some of the reasons for the fluctuations in abundance of certain 

 species of fish are known, no explanations have been given for the fluctuations in At- 

 lantic Menhaden. For the Gulf of Maine, Bigelow and others have stated that these fluc- 

 tuations date back to the early history of the fishery and have continued since then (15 : 

 116, 117; j6: 120). Thus, in 1845 they were abundant and in 1847 scarce. Then, for 

 some years prior to 1875, they were tremendously abundant off the coasts of Massa- 

 chusetts and Maine every summer, and a considerable fishery for them grew up on the 

 Maine coast. However, during the cold summer of 1877 few were taken in the Gulf un- 

 til September and October, when they were reported as "about as abundant as normal." 

 So few of these fish appeared north of Cape Cod from 1879 through 1885 that the cap- 

 ture of one caused comment, and many people thought that the fish would never return. 

 However, in 1886 the fish reappeared and in 1888 they were so abundant that the 

 fishery was revived. The period of abundance was short, however, for in 1891 the 

 catch was less than half of that taken the year before, and in 1 892 few were seen north 

 of Cape Cod. Similar periods of scarcity and abundance followed each other until 1 904, 

 when a 20-year period of scarcity began. Then in 1922 the fish returned in such abund- 

 ance that 18 steamers fished successfully in Massachusetts Bay; further, "upward of 

 1,500,000 pounds were landed by the larger fishing vessels besides what the small 

 boats brought in." From the middle 1920's until the middle 1940's there were not 

 enough of them in the Gulf of Maine to be of any commercial importance there. 



