FisJi Notes and Ojierics. 



355 



Tagging Tarpon. 



The tarpon, despite his lordly game qualities, 

 is a worthless fish when captured, being savor- 

 less as an edible, the only portion marketable 

 about it being the scales which are used in the 

 manufacture of ornaments. These scales are 

 sold for about twenty-five cents per hundred 

 and the market is soon glutted. At some 

 sections of the Gulf Coast, where these fish are 

 numerous, it is not unusual to see a number of 

 tarpon lying on the beach where they have been 

 hauled by rod fishermen and left either to rot 



their way eastward or westward as the seasons 

 change. Mr. Jenkins upon catching a tarpon 

 hauls it upon the beach and tags it as the 

 illustration shows. So disgusting and inhuman 

 is the practice of leaving these captured fish 

 upon the beach to rot, that the matter will be 

 brought up at the next session of the Texan 

 Legislature and it is likely that tagging tarpon 

 will be made, as it should be, compulsory upon 

 all who catch them. 



The attempts to introduce the American 



German Silver 



Tyvfs/-cc/ 



or be devoured by the herds of semi-wild hogs 

 that roam at large on the Coast islands. Such 

 a sight is repugnant to the genuine angler who 



brook trout into English waters have not 

 been attended with success. During the last 

 ten or twelve years thousands of frv have at 



abhors catching fish of which no use can be 

 made, and many cease the pursuit of the tarpon 

 for this reason alone. Now, very little is known 

 of the habits of the tarpon, particularly as to its 

 migrations, and Mr. Wm. Dunbar Jenkins, the 

 Chief Engineer of the Aransas Pass Harbor Co., 

 at Tarpon, Texas, has followed this season a 

 practice that will, in time, throw light upon the 

 movements of this fish, many of which are sup- 

 posed to winter on the Mexican Coast working 



various times been turned into different waters, 

 but in no instance has the fish really been 

 established. Occasionally a specimen is taken 

 here and there, but as years go by there is no 

 perceptible increase, while in some waters, 

 which were liberally stocked, they have disap- 

 peared altogether. 



Norway has over fifty public fish hatcheries, 

 yet produces less than a tenth of what the 

 United States does with ten. 



