CHAPTEB XVI. 



THE MEXHADEN Alosa menhaden (Gill.} 



This seemingly worthless fish is one of the most important of alE 

 the salt water fishes. There is not one of us, be he a fisherman OF 

 not, who is not interested in the mossbunker. They swarm all along: 

 the coast, even some distance up the rivers every summer, and upom 

 the regularity and perpetuity of that migration depends to a great 

 extent the fish supply of the Eastern Coast cities. The magnet 

 that draws the great armies of bluefish to our waters is the vast 

 shoals of menhaden that precede them. The best bait for stripedi 

 bass in surf -fishing, and, in fact, the material of all chumming, is- 

 the mossbunker. I have seen great collections of these menhadem 

 ascending the Sound, and next day following a school of porpoises,, 

 rolling, tossing and diving in merry style through the water. 



The great use the menhaden are put to is in making fish oil, and 

 right here lies a very threatening danger to our coast fishing. Seine- 

 nets are made that cover acres, fast-sailing steam tugs scour the 

 shoal waters of the coast at all times and seasons, and with one hauL 

 of the nets, worked by huge engines, countless thousands of the 

 defenceless menhaden are taken. The fish are then either ground 

 up and subjected to the process of rendering for oil or are sold to the 

 shore farmers for manure. There are fleets of these steam tugs- 

 sent out by rich corporations, not to speak of smaller and less am- 

 bitious vessels. In this way, in season and out of season, thousands 

 ipon thousands of the most important bait fish that swims are ruth_ 



