110 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



stances, seem intended for one purpose — to elaborate simpler materials 

 into tbe nitrogenous substances necessary for the food of other animals 

 which are wholly or in part carnivorous in their diet. So the menhaden, 

 deriving it^ own subsistence from otherwise unutilized organic matter, 

 is pre-eminently a meat-producing machine. Man takes from tbe water 

 annually six or seven .hundred millions of these fish, weighing from 

 two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand tons, but his indebted- 

 ness to the menhaden does not end here. When he brings upon his 

 table bluetish, bouitos, weakfish, swordfish, bass, codfish, what is he 

 eating? Usually nothing but menhaden! 



27. — Man and the fisheries. 



Former allusions to the inJJuence of the fisheries. 



151. I have remarked above (paragraph 117) that the menhaden appears 

 to be the most abundant species on the eastern coast of the United 

 States, and that there is no evidence of any permanent decrease in its 

 numbers, although from year to year there are fluctuations in their 

 numerical representiition. 



I have also discussed (paragraph 102) the question of the alleged 

 change in their habits from the tendency of seine-fishing to drive them 

 fiirther from this coast. Upon this question there can be no decided 

 judgment at present. In paragraph 118, I have spoken of the slight 

 probability of decrease in future. 



Future increase or decrease. 



152. Whether there is any likelihood that the myriads which now 

 swarm our waters will ever be perceptibly diminished by the loss of six or 

 seven hundred millions of their number annually I will not presume to 

 say. I simply call attention to the fact that spawning fish are appar- 

 ently never taken in the nets. It is the opinion of many authorities 

 that if fish are not interfered with at the time when they are reproduc- 

 ing their kind there is no great probability of decreasing their number. 



Alleged destruction of the fisheries. 



153. The Commissioners of Fisheries of the State of New York, Messrs. 

 Horatio Seymour, Edward M. Smith, and Eobert B. Roosevelt, in their 

 report for the year 1874 * (p. 31), speaking of the depletion of the waters 

 of Great South. Bav, remark: 



" Last season was favorable for the pound-fishermen, in the circum- 

 stance that the sharks did not destroy their nets. The result was, that 

 there was absolutely no fishing inside the bay the entire summer. 

 Usually, by the month of August, they have to move from the inlet to 



* Report I of the | Commissioners of Fisheries | of the | State of New York. | | 



Transmitted to the legislature, February 1, 1875. | | Albany : | Weed, Parsons and 



Company, Printers. | 1875. | 8vo. pp. 61. 



