CHAPTER XVI. 



The Menhaden — Alosa menhaden — (Gill.) 



This seemingly -worthless fish is one of the most important of all 

 the salt water fishes. There is not one of us, be he a fisherman or 

 not, who is not interested in the mossbunker. They swarm all along 

 the coast, even some distance up the rivers every summer, and upon 

 the regularity and perpetuity of that migration depends to a great 

 extent the fish supply of the Eastern Coast cities. The magnet 

 that draws the great armies of bluefish to our waters is the vast 

 shoals of menhaden that precede them. The best bait for striped 

 bass in surf -fishing, and, in fact, the material of all chumming,, is 

 the mossbunker. I have seen great collections of these menhaden 

 ascending the Soimd, and next day following a school of porpoises, 

 rolling, tossing and diving in merry style through the water. 



The great use the menhaden are put to is in making fish oil, and 

 right here lies a very threatening danger to our coast fishing. S^ine 

 nets are made that cover acres, fast-sailmg steam tugs scour the 

 shoal Avaters of the coast at all times and seasons, and with one haul 

 of the nets, worked by huge engines, countless thousands of the 

 defenceless menhaden are taken. The fish are then either ground 

 up and subjected to the process of rendering for oil or are sold to the 

 shore farmers for manure. There are fleets of these steam tugs 

 sent out by rich corporations, not to speak of smaller and less am- 

 Tiitious vessels. In this way, in season and out of season, thousands 

 jpon thousands of the most important bait fish that swims are ruth. 



