A PLEA FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROTECTION OF FLORIDA FISH 



AND FISHERIES. 



BY JAMES A. HENSHALL, M. D., 



Superintendent of United States Fish Commission Station, Bozeman, Monatna. 



The principal fishing industries of Florida are prosecuted on the Gulf coast, at 

 Pensacola, Tampa, Punta Gorda, and Key West. The shad fishery of the St. Johns 

 Biver is also very important, and considerable business in this direction is done at 

 various places on the east coast. At Pensacola the principal fish product is the red 

 snapper, a fish of good size and with firm flesh of fine quality, which bears trans- 

 portation well. It is taken with hook and line on the snapper banks in from 10 to 50 

 fathoms and from 10 to 50 miles offshore. At Cedar Key, Tampa, and Punta (ion la 

 the bay and brackish-water fishes are taken by haul seines on the shores of the bays 

 and inlets ; the varieties mostly handled are mullet, redfish, or " bass," as it is known 

 commercially, sea trout, pompano (the best of all fishes for the table), Spanish mackerel, 

 jackfish, etc. The mullet is, perhaps, the most important, as it is shipped fresh, on 

 ice, while large quantities are cured by salt. 



At Key West many of the fishes are entirely different from those of the other 

 waters of the State, and belong rather to the West Indian fauna. They comprise the 

 coral fishes, salt-water fishes par excellence. All are taken with hook and line, as 

 the various seines and nets can not be utilized owing to the ragged coral formation of 

 the shores and reefs. The principal fish are kingfish, mackerel, groupers, snappers, 

 grunts, jewfish, etc., which exist in great variety. The catch is almost entirely con- 

 sumed at Key West. Formerly a fleet of smacks carried live nsh in wells to Havana 

 until a prohibitory import duty was imposed by the cap tain- general upon fishermen 

 from the United States, which compelled the abandonment of the industry and the 

 sale of the smacks to Spanish fishermen, who, besides taking fish contrary to law in 

 Florida waters, carry on a nefarious trade in smuggling vile rum and poor cigars. 



The Gulf coast line of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas is 

 more than 6,000 miles in length, being about 1,000 miles longer than that of the Middle 

 Atlantic States. Of this extent Florida has nearly 3,000 miles, or about one-half. A 

 statistical review of the U. S. Fish Commission, published some ten years ago, says : 



The Gulf States occupy a favorable location for supplying a large part of the country with 

 marine products. A dozen or more States in the Lower Mississippi Valley have their nearest coastal 

 connections through these States, and it will probably be in response to this section's demand for 

 marine food products that the Gulf fisheries will reach their highest development. 



The fulfillment of this prediction has been realized, for at present a large demand 

 exists for the food-fishes of Florida in all the South Atlantic States, while the choicer 

 varieties, as red snapper, pompano, Spanish mackerel, etc., are shipped to all the 

 principal northern cities. The same report says : 



This region is favored with many highly esteemed food-fishes, which occur here in greater abun- 

 dance than elsewhere on the coasts of the United States. The undeveloped resources of the Gulf 

 States invite outside attention and afford a promising outlook for future increase. The possibilities of 

 the region in the matter of oyster production and cultivation are believed to be great. 



253 



