Tulian. — Shrimp Production in Louisiana 123 



practices of the fishermen. Since the food shortage caused by the 

 war, it has now become profitable to dispose of all fish of a market- 

 able size; but it is still impossible to rescue the millions of young 

 food and other fishes caught in the shrimp seines, as the majority 

 seem destined to die even if rescued, probably because of the 

 secretions given off by the shrimp. The ordinary way to clean the 

 catch is to dump the entire lot in the boats and throw out the dead 

 fish and trash by hand and with the aid of small rakes. If the 

 catch is considerable, the process requires some time, whereas even 

 the more hardy fish are dead in a few minutes. 



During the year 1917 a new method of catching shrimp 

 appeared in the field, the shrimp trawl, a netted device which is 

 dragged on the bottom behind a gasoline boat. This consists of 

 a large bag similar to the pocket of a seine, with short wings 

 attached to heavy weighted boards on either side. These boards 

 are tied to the boat by long ropes and are bridled in such a manner 

 that the device is kept at the bottom and opened to its fullest 

 extent while operating. A comparative study is at present being 

 made in order to determine the relative values of the seines and 

 trawls. We find in the first place that trawling brings greater 

 revenue to the fishermen as the average catch per man per day is 

 considerably increased. This proved a great blessing during the 

 war, while the shortage of labor was acute, as one or two men 

 could often take the place of fifteen or twenty. From four 

 trawls in 1917, the number has gradually increased until at the 

 present time there are approximately two hundred and fifty 

 operating in Louisiana waters, while the number of seines has 

 somewhat diminished. 



With the trawl, the waste of valuable food fish life has been 

 reduced to a negligible factor, as a trawl seldom catches an 

 appreciable amount of fish; whereas the destruction in the case 

 of the seine is so great that it appears to be the main cause of the 

 rapidly diminishing supply of Louisiana salt water food fishes. 

 Furthermore, up to the advent of the trawl, the adult of Penceus 

 setiferus was unknown as a commercial proposition, as they seldom 

 come within seining distance of the shore. On the other hand, 

 from a depth of one fathom to as great a depth in the Gulf as has 

 ever been tried (about ten fathoms and a distance off shore of 

 about eighteen miles), there has been opened by the trawl an 



