REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CXLV 



The intiaminiitiou resulting from the hook wounds could easily be 

 traced to the membranes of the brain, which were in most instances 

 highly congested and surrounded by considerable bloody serum. 

 While sucli injuries are often unavoidable, it is probable that some 

 might have been less severe had more care been exercised in extracting 

 the hooks. In the cases of meningitis due to injuries to the eyes, there 

 is ground for suspicion of rough handling. Fishermen have a practice 

 of thrusting the forefinger and thumb into the eyes of cod and other 

 fish in order to secure a firm hold in removing the hook, and in this 

 way displacement of the lens, rupture of the eyeball, and other injuries 

 may result. The cases of degeneration and inflammation of the cardiac 

 muscle and of mixture of the aorta might be occasioned by heavy 

 pressure on the ventral region between the gills. Fishermen, while 

 removing the hook, often grasp fish in the place stated, squeezing the 

 heart and related structures with sufficient force to produce serious 

 lesions. The fish whose death depended on cerebro- spinal meningitis 

 was clearly the victim of rough handling; the wound in the side was 

 such as might be i^roduced by a swinging blow on the thwarts or gun- 

 wale of a boat. 



Subsequent examinations of many cod at the station showed con- 

 ditions similar to those mentioned. There seems no reason to believe 

 that the fish received rougher treatment this season than formerly. The 

 high mortality may have depended on special physical surroundings, 

 such as high- water temperature, which promoted inflammation, perhaps 

 septic, that under other conditions would not have ensued. The expe- 

 rience, however, demonstrates the necessity for great care in handling 

 cod that are to be kept in confinement for several months. 



TAGGING COD AT WOODS HOLE. 



During December, January and February 560 cod, weighing from 3 

 to 17 pounds, were tagged at Woods Hole and released in adjacent 

 waters. These fish had been caught with hand-lines on the southern 

 Massachusetts coast and retained at Woods Hole for brood purposes. 

 After their use in the fish-cultural work, they were liberated with a 

 small tin or copper tag attached to one fin by silver or copper wire. 

 Complete data were kept for each fish tagged, including its weight, 

 length, sex, and when and where released. A printed circular calling 

 attention to the experiment and soliciting certain information regard- 

 ing the fish was extensively cii'culated in the coast towns of Massa- 

 chusetts, Ehode Island, and Connecticut, and also in New York and 

 New Jersey. Within a few weeks after the fish were released tagged 

 fish began to be caught, and by the close of the fiscal year about 25 

 tags had been received, while the taking of other fish was reported ; 

 these were mostly from southern Massachusetts, but some came from 

 Ehode Island, Connecticut, and New York, and one from a point on the 

 middle New Jersey coast. It is expected that the experiment may 

 throw some light on the rate of growth of the cod, the frequency of its 

 spawning, the extent to which individual fish migrate, etc. 

 F. E^ 1)8 X 



