HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 113 



restriction will be when restriction has been shown to be needed. Other 

 States have made a trial of the interference policy in this same matter 

 and have abandoned it as uncalled for and unwise. 



" The complaint that the seines ' scare' the edible fish from the interior 

 waters may be dismissed as too trivial for notice. If the limited opera- 

 tions of seining inshore scare the fish out, much more should the far more 

 extended operations outside scare them in. The same weight is to be at- 

 tached to the charge that the seines injure the shad fishery by capturing 

 the fish. The total number of shad caught by all the members of the Oil 

 and Guano Association combined does not amount to over two hundred 

 barrels per year. Salmon are never caught in their seines." 



I.— THE MENHADEN FISHERIES. 



28. — The fishing grounds. 



Tlie location of the fishing grounds. 



157. As has been already indicated in the description of the migra- 

 tions and movements of the menhaden, there are certain portions of the 

 coast which tbey frequent more certainly and constantly. These are 

 marked upon the map accompanying this memoir and may be designated 

 as (1) the Booth Bay Eegion, (2) the Cape Ann Eegion, (3) the Cape Cod 

 Eegion, (4) the Narragansett Bay Eegion, (5) the Long Island Sound 

 Eegion, (7) the Sandy Hook Eegion, (8) the Chesapeake Eegion, and (9) 

 the Hatteras Eegion.* 



Bearing in mind the fact that the menhaden is fond of shallow, brack- 

 ish waters while the mackerel is not, it is quite curious to remark that 

 their favorite haunts are much the same. Both species are caught most 

 successfully in the great, partially-protected indentations of the coast. 

 Whether it is on account of the calm waters, the abundance of food, or 

 the detention of the schools in these great '' pockets," as they may be 

 called, is not apparent. Perhajis all have their influence, probably the 

 latter has the greatest. 



In these localities, at different seasons of the year, the fisheries can 

 be most successfully carried on, and here only can they be made profit- 

 able. 



29. — Methods of capture. 



Past and ])resent methods contrasted. 



lo8. Twenty years, ago when the menhaden fisheries were of very 

 small importance, the business of manufacturing oil and guano being 

 still in its infancy the only use for the fish was as a fertilizer in its raw 

 state. This demand was easily supplied by the use of seines and gill- 

 nets along the shore, for at that time the habits of the fish were prob- 

 ably very difl'erent. They swarmed our bays and inlets, and there is 

 quite good authority for the story that 1,300,000 were once taken with 



* Plate XI. 

 S F 



