FISH AND FISHEHIES. 14? 



Sooner or later other methods may be discovered of treating our fine 

 species of mullet. Whether or no, we have no doubt that its fishery is 

 destined to be a most important industry. The mode of capturing this 

 fish is a matter which requires consideration. At present the fishermen 

 catch them after they enter the harbours, bays, inlets, &c., and follow 

 them up to their spawning grounds, scattering them and effectually inter- 

 fering with them in the discharge of these necessary functions. Such 

 a wanton destructive mode of fishing should not be tolerated. The 

 breeding of the fish need not be interfered with, for they can be got in 

 any quantity at the mouths of the bays or in the open sea. For this 

 mode of fishing, drift nets, such as ai-e used for the herring and mackerel 

 fisheries, but with larger meshes, might be found to answer. But the 

 description of net chiefly used in the menhado fishery, on the coast of 

 Maine, is we think still more likely to be suitable. It is thus described 

 by Mr. Simmonds in the "Commercial Products of the Sea," page 

 222 : — " The seines are made of strong cotton twine and are 130 fathoms 

 long (780 feet), and from 80 to 100 feet deep. At the eastern end of 

 Long Island, where the fishing is in deep water, the depth is even 

 greater. Alono- the bottom of the seines run lines so arranged that 

 they can be drawn up like an old fashioned purse — whence the name 

 ' purse seine.' The top of the seine is attached to buoys of cork or 

 wood, and these, when the whole is thrown into the water, hold the 

 upper edge at the surface, while the remainder hangs vertically beneath 

 it. The seine is loaded into two boats, which also form a part of the 

 outfit of the yacht, and are always with her when not engaged in taking 

 fish. Thus furnished the yachts start on a cruise in search of the fish, 

 which go in immense schools. When a school is met with it is necessary 

 to drop the seine in front of them, otherwise no fish would be taken, as 

 they would swim away in front before the seine could be closed round 

 them. The boats get ahead of the school and pay out the seine as they 

 separate. When the school is fairly in the seine the boats come together 

 and completely surround the fish. At the pointwherethe boats first started 

 a heavy weight called a ' tom ' is attached to the bottom of the seine, 

 and to this weight, which rests upon the bottom, are fastened the lines 

 which ' purse ' up the bottom and prevent the fish from escaping below. 

 When the bottom is drawn together the men haul the seine into the 

 boats, and shake the fish down into the bunt, as the purse formed by the 

 seine is called. The fish are taken out of the seine into the 'carry-ways' 

 by means of dip nets." The "carry- ways" are additional vessels 

 attached to each yacht for taking the fish ashore. 



A system also of having a look-out kept along the coast to the south 

 upon the movements of the shoals of mullet, so that information might 

 be telegraphed to the fishing stations, as is done in the case of the 

 tunny in the Mediterranean, would be most useful as a guide to the 

 people engaged in this fishery. 



The "maray " {Clwpea sagax) is a very rich, oily, well tasted fish of 

 the herring family, which passes north along our coast about midwinter 

 in enormous shoals. The same fish has been seen to pass south along 

 the east coast of New Zealand in the month of February, so that there 

 is every reason to infer that it is a migratory fish in the truest sense. 

 Some idea of the vast extent of the shoals of these fish may be formed 

 from the following quotation. Professor M'Coy, of Melbourne, in 



