EFFECTS OF MENHADEN FISHING. 275 
ments, will often cause them to scatter, become wild, and even disappear alto- 
gether. 
To sum up, the annual taking of some 600,000,000 of menhaden per season 
for the past twenty-three years has to no perceptible extent or in any per- 
ceivable amount diminished the average number in the ocean and its great 
estuaries; but it has lessened the quantity in some of the smaller water areas 
adjacent to large fishing operations, in some cases almost to extinction. The 
self-evident lesson to be learned by the commercial menhaden fishermen—and 
the nature of this fish is such that no one else has even a remote interest in it— 
is that in the future these fish will be largely taken in the ocean with larger 
and faster steamers and more improved appliances. 
EFFECTS OF THE MENHADEN FISHERY UPON PREDATORY FISHES. 
There have been no menhaden, only a few excepted, north of Cape Cod since 
1898. This is due in part, no doubt, to the increased destructiveness, in those 
waters, of dogfish, but scientists believe it to be due principally to the tempera- 
ture of the water. Even the large and vigorous menhaden do not go to or 
remain in water cooler than 60°: It has been contended that these northern fish 
were all caught up by the steamers. Even were this true, for the last season in 
which there was any menhaden fishing in Maine, 1898, why have they not 
returned? There have been comparatively no menhaden taken north of Cape 
Cod for ten years, and they have been abundant south of the Cape several years 
since 1898, notably in 1903, when over 1,000,000,000 were taken. 
It is distinctly the opinion of this writer, following the dictum of Colonel 
McDonald, that no migratory fish can be materially diminished, much less 
destroyed, by any appliances that the brain and ingenuity of man have yet 
devised, when not taken on their regular spawning grounds. The herring and 
mackerel fisheries, both in this country and in Europe, satisfactorily demonstrate 
this truth. 
Lastly, let us consider what effect the taking of menhaden by man has 
on the fish that prey upon it. Nature’s evident purpose in producing the 
menhaden was to supply food directly to fishes, and indirectly to man on 
account of its value for fertilizing purposes. It is, perhaps, the most promis- 
cuously prolific of all fishes. 
Almost all predaceous fish prey upon menhaden. In the order of their 
destructiveness, estimating the entire Atlantic coast of the United States, I 
would name the shark, the bluefish, the dogfish, the weakfish or squeteague, the 
porpoise, and the bonito. The shark is their principal enemy south of the Chesa- 
peake. ‘The writer opened one shark taken off the mouth of the Cape Fear 
River, in North Carolina, and actually counted 352 well-defined menhaden 
taken from its stomach, at least half of them entirely whole; and he has seen 
thousands of them preying on schools of menhaden in the same waters. Many 
