THE SEA A FOOD BESERVOIR — MOORE. 605 



in numbers and about 1902 they were reestablished in the old haunts 

 as. abundantly as before the disaster. 



The tilefish is a large, brilliantly colored, handsome species, of ex- 

 cellent food qualities, and a firmness of flesh which makes it adapted 

 to shipment over long distances. It was unknown in the markets 

 until October, 1915, w^hen the Bureau of Fisheries undertook a cam- 

 paign to introduce it and met with such success that over 10,000,000 

 pounds were sold within a 3^ear, and it has been marketed from 

 Seattle, Washington, to Liverpool, England. 



In the case of the tilefish the problem of utilization involved also 

 that of production, and of inducing the fishermen to go out and 

 catch it, but with many other fishes the supply is an incident to the 

 fisheries as already prosecuted. The fish are caught, l)ut few are 

 eaten. This is the case with the wdiiting of the New England coast, 

 which is often taken in such vast numbers as to be a burden on tlie 

 fisherman and a nuisance to the neighborhood on account of the quan- 

 tities of dead ones from the nets, Avhich are thrown up by the sea on 

 the beaches. This is an excellent fish when fresh, but unfortunately 

 its keeping qualities are poor, and, excepting in proximity to the 

 fisheries, it is available to the consumer only when frozen or salted. 

 The emergency demand for fish wdiich has arisen as a result of the 

 war has increased the consumption of whiting, but the supply avail- 

 able during the summer and fall is still far from being utilized. 



Another species which the fishermen have regarded as a nuisance 

 is the sablefish of the Pacific coast. It is found in many places asso- 

 ciated with the halibut, and its habit of taking the hooks intended 

 for that valuable species, and its own unsalability, made it anathema 

 to the fishermen, and their cursing was in explicit terms. Millions 

 of pounds have been thrown back into the sea annually, while the 

 demand for fish in some parts of the countr^'^ could not be satisfied. 

 It was not eaten, except locally, because its qualitias w^ere unknown 

 to the public, but a campaign of publicity has corrected that condi- 

 tion and it is now on sale not only in the Pacific Coast States, but 

 as far east as New York, and the fishermen are finding it a material 

 source of profit. The name " sablefish " was sponsored by the Bureau 

 of Fisheries at the beginning of this campaign, the fish having been 

 known previousl}" as black cod, although it is not a cod and is not 

 related to the cod family by lineage, structure or edible qualities. 

 When it was discovered and described in 1811, the only name which 

 it bore was the barbarous one, "beshow," used by the Indians and 

 the early settlers and fishermen in recognition of its color and with 

 an extraordinar}' indifference to other characters gave it the name 

 which it has borne until recently. So long as the fish was practically 

 unknown and unutilized, this popular misnomer was of little real 



