exceptional, if not unique, among fishes 

 of the sea." 



Enemies and Mortality 



The following succinct account is 

 quoted fronn Bigelow and Schroeder 

 (1953): 



"No wonder the fat oily menhaden, 

 swimming in schools of closely 

 ranked individuals, helpless to pro- 

 tect itself, is the prey of every 

 predaceous animal. Whales and por- 

 poises devour them in large num- 

 bers; sharks are often seen following 

 the pogy schools; pollock, cod, silver 

 hake, and swordfish all take their toll 

 in the Gulf of Maine, as do weakfish 

 south of Cape Cod. Tuna also kill 

 great numbers. But the worst enemy 

 of all is the bluefish, and this is 

 true even in the Gulf of Maine 

 during periods when both bluefish 

 and menhaden are plentiful there. . . 

 Not only do these pirates devour 

 millions of menhaden every summer, 

 but they kill far more than they eat. 

 Besides the toll taken by these natu- 

 ral enemies, menhaden often strand 

 in myriads in shoal water, either in 

 their attempt to escape their enemies 

 or for other reasons, to perish and 

 pollute the air for weeks with the 

 stench of their decaying carcasses ." 



Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928) 

 said that bluefish migrate up and down 

 the Atlantic coast following schools of 

 menhaden and other fish upon which 

 they feed voraciously. The abundance 

 of menhaden governed the movement of 

 bluefish to some extent. In 1922 young 

 menhaden were plentiful in the lower 

 half of Chesapeake Bay, and the com- 

 mercial catch of bluefish was greater 

 than it had been for many years. 



Ellison (1951) said the menhaden 

 is "prey to virtually all of those car- 

 nivorous fishes which inhabit the same 

 waters." 



Goode (1879) was much impressed 

 with predation upon menhaden. He said 

 whales and dolphins ate them by the 

 hogshead. From the air they were 



attacked by gulls and other sea birds, 

 and the osprey. In fact Goode men- 

 tioned every predator listed in later 

 accounts, including gars and catfish in 

 southern waters. He gave varied ac- 

 counts of attacks by bluefish, and said 

 the menhaden when pursued "often 

 drive in great masses upon the shores ." 

 Goode thought the number destroyed 

 by predators was many times that taken 

 by man. The figure he gave, 3,000 

 million of millions, equals 3 quadrillion 

 and is certainly a vast overestimate. 



Ellison (1951) mentioned that blue- 

 fish sometimes ran menhaden into the 

 shallows in such numbers that they died 

 and piled up in windrows 2 feet deep, 

 and polluted the air. Reports of this 

 phenomenon extended from Hatteras 

 to Maine. Local health boards were 

 sometimes required to dispose of the 

 rotting fish. According to Bigelow and 

 Schroeder (1953) dead fish drifted 

 ashore along Massachusetts Bay in 1946 

 and 1947, and the local health boards 

 had to clean the beaches. However, this 

 kill was attributed to netting by lobster 

 bait fishermen. 



Westman and Nigrelli (1955) made 

 the following statement concerning an- 

 nual kills of menhaden in New York: 



"Menhaden appear in the New 

 York bight in commercial quantities 

 during late March or April and, 

 according to reports received, the 

 large fish precede the smaller fish 

 by several weeks. During the latter 

 part of May, or early June, great 

 quantities of menhaden die in these 

 waters and in the waters of western 

 Long Island Sound and litter the 

 beaches in untold numbers. Conse- 

 quently, various agencies call other 

 agencies each year, or write letters, 

 about this phenomenon. These agen- 

 cies, in turn, communicate with other 

 agencies which, in turn, may refer 

 the problem back to the first agency, 

 and so on." 



Dying fish were called "spin- 

 ners". They were characterized by 

 uncoordinated movements and exop- 

 thalmia. Westman and Nigrelli found 



13 



