18 SURVEY OF FISHING GROUNDS, 1915. 
the bait and the halibut themselves. On such a bottom will be found 
growing sea anemones, pennatulids, crabs, starfish, and other organ- 
isms which form part of the food of the halibut. 
Mr. Thompson “ says of the food of the halibut: 
The food of the halibut is well known to exhibit great variety, but the data recently 
collected indicate that it differs widely on different banks and may be quite limited 
in any given locality. The range of food has been found to include crabs, sea-anem- 
ones, starfish, sand-lance (Ammodytes personatus), dogfish (Squalus sucklii), ratfish 
(Chimera) (Hydrolagus) (colliei), Cyclogasterids (of determined species), the arrow- 
toothed halibut (Atherestes stomias), octopi, gray cod (Gadus macrocephalus), salmon 
(Oncorhynchus kisutch), and even occasional red cod (Sebastodes). It is here deserving 
of remark that the crabs and the gray cod form the-vast bulk of the food on many 
banks, while on at least one the halibut used mainly the sand-lance. The crabs and 
sand-lance were eaten by halibut of small size generally in shallower line. Thus, in 
90 fathoms off Middleton Island, of 130 stomachs, 59 per cent were empty, 39 per cent 
had gray cod, 2 per cent had crabs and the arrow-toothed halibut. * * * Usually 
but asingle kind of food was found identifiable in a single stomach, although this was 
farfirom beingarule. A large quantity of the particular kind of food is usually found, 
indicating that the halibut has not moved so rapidly as to leave the type of bottom 
on which it was found before the food caught was digested. The presence of small 
worms serves to indicate the capacity the halibut has for picking up minute foods. 
The problem of the mushy halibut is one that must be solved in 
the near future. As much as 50 per cent of the fish, when delivered 
at the market, have been found to be mushy and, hence, unsalable. 
At the time they are caught the affected fish can not be separated 
from the good fish, but after being on ice for some time the meat 
becomes soft and can easily be shaken from the bones. 
There are two kinds of mushiness—milky halibut and white-meated 
halibut. In the former case (milky) the meat will become soft and 
falls away from the skin and bones. In the latter variety (white- 
meated) there will be found running through the white flesh what 
might be called lean meat. When culling fish a small gash is made 
in the tail whereby the condition of the meat is made apparent. 
Sometimes only part of the fish is mushy; the tail may be mushy 
and the body good, and again the reverse may be true. As to the 
cause of this condition of the halibut, nothing but theories has been 
advanced up to the present. The Bureau has the matter under 
investigation. 
In addition to the halibut, black cod (Anoplopoma fimbria) was 
found to be abundant at all points between Grays Harbor and Flat- 
tery Bank. Near Flattery Bank exceptionally large ones occurred 
in great abundance. The survey of 1914 reported that, from all indi- 
cations, black cod could be fished in the deep water just off the south- 
ern and western slopes of Heceta Bank. Fresh black cod is a good 
table fish and in some places it is considered a delicacy. 
a A preliminary report on the life history of the halibut. Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries for the 
Province of British Columbia, for the year ending December, 1914; also a Progress Report in the Canadian 
Fisherman for December, 1915. 
