OUR VANISHING FOOD FISH 



547 



be stated that they point to the steady 

 decline in the demand for herring for 

 food and contend that more herring are 

 not being sold for fertilizer than were 

 heretofore sold for food, and ask what 

 effect upon the supply of that fish has 

 the use of the herring for one purpose 

 than another ? I do not positively affirm 

 that the ease with which the fisherman 

 may dispose of their catch to the fertil- 

 izer factories has contributed to the 

 decline in the use of that fish for food 

 purposes, but the situation certainly 

 begets that suspicion. Conceding, how- 



coast, in Long Island Sound, on the 

 Pacific, and in the waters of Alaska, 

 a flourishing traffic in this fish for fer- 

 tilizer purposes is conducted. 



The meat of the herring is delicious 

 and it would be one of our most popu- 

 lar food fish were it not for its ex- 

 ceedingly numerous bones. The fish- 

 loving world awaits the coming of the 

 genius who shall do for the herring 

 what Eli Whitney did for the cotton 

 boll. That Dame Necessity, who is the 

 Mother of Invention, will produce this 

 individual in good time, is not to be 



FISHING FOR LOBSTERS. 



BERRIED LOBSTERS, TAKEN FROM POUND AT BOOTHBAY HARBOR STATION (MAINE), IN COURSE OF TRANSFER TO 

 WELLS OF THE STEAMER WHICH IS TO CONVEY THEM TO THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES HATCHERY FOR STRIPING. 



ever, that the herring is an inferior food 

 fish, is it economically wise to permit 

 its unrestricted destruction for non-food 

 purposes ? Will not, within a compara- 

 tively short period, the increasing ex- 

 igencies of our meat-food problem force 

 this inferior fish into a place of impor- 

 tance in the diet of many of our people ? 

 The use of herring for fertilizer is 

 not confined to the waters of the Ches- 

 apeake. Along the New England 



doubted, and even now there ought to 

 be aspirants in the field for that honor. 

 The present year's catch of herring in 

 the Chesapeake Basin is the smallest in 

 the history of those fisheries. Nearly 

 all the commercial fisheries failed to 

 earn a profit and hundreds of the fish- 

 ermen have been plunged into excessive 

 debt. Indications point to next season 

 being worse than the present, and the 

 future prospects are discouraging. 



