98 APPENDIX. MENHADEN FISHERY. 



APPENDIX B. 



MENHADEN FISHERY. 



It has been deemed useful to give in an appendix some data respecting 

 this fishery which could not be embodied in the paper itself without unduly 

 extending its length; and I have accordingly sought to select out of the 

 mass of material furnished me, such facts as seem to possess the most value 

 or interest. 



The menhaden, a branch of the herring family, are a migratory surface 

 fish, moving northward in early spring and southward in late fall, and col- 

 lecting in immense bodies called by the fishermen "schools". Their food 

 is xn insect too minute to be seen by the naked eye. They are found on 

 the l-tlantic seaboard from the British Provinces to the Gulf of Mexico, but 

 their favorite summer resting places seem to be within the belt along shore 

 seaward 50 or 75 miles from the Capes of Virginia to Cape Cod. More 

 than two-thirds of the annual catch in recent years is taken between Cape 

 May and Narragansett Bay. Neither their spawning grounds nor their 

 time of spawning are fully determined. Great differences of opinion pre- 

 vail on these and other points touching the habits and movements of these 

 fish. No sufficient study has yet been made by naturalists to warrant 

 definite conclusions, and fishermen who within their range of experience 

 have been careful observers during many years, confess that they cannot 

 decide on some elementary questions. This lack of certainty as to the 

 movements of menhaden may fairly be held to justify the claim that there 

 should be no legislation affecting the business of taking and rendering them 

 except in some few particulars of regulation which may be manifestly safe 

 and proper, or may be acquiesced in by those engaged in the business. 

 Proceeding from some mistaken ideas respecting an alleged effect of the 

 catch of menhaden upon the supply of certain food fishes in the market, 

 there have been various efforts to regulate or restrict by State or Federal 

 legislation the taking of menhaden, but so far they have either proved 

 abortive altogether, or, where enacted into laws, no appreciable benefit has 

 resulted from their passage. The business needs little if any protection from 

 law, and no other industry needs protection from it by law. That in 

 nature and effect it is of a character to deserve the most liberal encourage- 

 ment and support rather than repression, must be obvious from the con- 

 sideration that it takes out of the sea a material otherwise waste and 

 worthless and from it makes articles of prime importance to the uses of 

 mankind, amounting in yearly values to millions of dollars, and in doing 

 so it affords an honest livelihood to several thousands of worthy citizens. 

 To illustrate the progress it has made within the past decade I collate in 

 l^arallel columns the statistics as certified by the United States Menhaden 



