THE COAST FISHERIES OF TEXAS. 377 
THE FISHERIES. 
THE BAY-SEINE FISHERY. 
This is at present the most important of the fisheries of Texas. It 
is prosecuted in the same manner and with the same form of apparatus 
in all the fishing sections along the coast. In 1890 this fishery gave 
steady employment to 358 men, using 110 sailboats valued at $38,750; 
114 seines valued at $15,200, and other apparatus to the value of $4,643. 
The total catch amounted to 3,609,100 pounds, for which the fishermen 
received $150,592. In 1880, according to figures reported by the U.S. 
Fish Commission, 126 men engaged in fishing 42 seines and the catch 
amounted to 650,000 pounds, valued at $32,500. 
These seines are hauled in all the bays along the Texas coast; they 
are not used in the Gulf of Mexico nor in the rivers. Ten years ago 
the greater part of those operated were owned at Galveston; since then 
the number used in Aransas Bay has shown the greatest increase, as 
fish have grown scarcer in Galveston Bay and the railroad facilities at 
Aransas Bay have improved. 
Each party of seine fishermen, which usually consists of from two to 
four men, ordinarily has one sailboat, one seine, one or two skiffs, and 
two or more live-fish cars. The sailboats and skiffs are of the ordinary 
type used in all the fisheries on this coast. The sailboats never have 
“wells” in which the fish may be kept alive, and ice is not used for pre- 
serving the catch; but floating cars are used, in which the fish are 
kept alive while being transported to market; these are roughly con- 
structed, usually of slats in the form of and about the same size as a 
skiff; in fact, some of the fishermen use an old skiff, cutting or boring 
holes in it and covering it with an*open slat-work top. The live-fish 
cars are not usually painted; they have capacity for 400 to 2,000 pounds 
of fish, according to their size and the temperature of the water. The 
cost ranges from $5 to $15 each. They are carried on board the sail- 
boats when empty of fish, and when the fish are put in them they are 
towed behind. 
The seines vary in length from 80 to 200 fathoms and in depth from 
44 to,6 feet. The small depth is made necessary by the shallowness of 
the water. Usually no lead or similar weight is attached to the bottom, 
the sinker consisting of a tarred rope about an inch in diameter; but 
some of the seines have several lead sinkers on the tarred rope, near 
the middle. In the center of each seine is a cone-shaped bag from 10 to 
15 feet in length and 3 or more feet wide where it joins the bunt, taper- 
ing to 6 inches at the smaller end. 
The ordinary mesh of the seine is 14 inches square, but the net used 
in the bag and for a distance of 12 feet on each side has a mesh about 
inch square. This smaller mesh is necessary in order to increase the 
strength of the seine in those places, to prevent tearing by alligator 
gars, tarpon, ete. The cost of an ordinary seine is about $1.10 per 
