ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



BOOBIES ON THE ALBATROSS' MAI! 

 birds wore quite fearless: heeding neither the drifting smoke from tl 



the presi 



teen million pounds, worth $400,000. were land- 

 ed in ports of the Gulf States alone. (Later 

 statistics are not at hand.) The red snapper 

 is caught in rather deep water, large numbers 

 being taken on fishing grounds off the west coast 

 of Florida. The center of the red snapper fish- 

 ery is Pensacola. where there are many vessels 

 engaged in the taking of this fish. The catch 

 is made in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Cam- 

 peche Bank of Yucatan. It is marketed in ill 

 eastern cities as far as Chicago. 



The red snapper is found from Long Island 

 to Brazil but is very rare north of Hatteras and 

 merely accidental in New York waters. It lives 

 well in captivity, and the beautiful rose red 

 color of the fish makes it one of the most attrac- 

 tive exhibits of the Aquarium. 



Whale Meat as Food. — It is many years 

 since the writer ate whale meat on board a 

 whale ship at Port Clarence, just below Bering 

 Strait. The lapse of time is too great for recol- 

 lection as to its flavor, but it proved to be quite 

 edible, like the seal meat we had eaten previ- 

 ously at the Pribilof Islands. Pickled whale 

 skin was also set before us by the hospitable 

 whaler. 



About one thousand whales are taken yearly 

 at shore whaling stations along the coasts of 

 North America. There is no reason why the meat 

 of the whale should not be utilized. It has al- 

 ways been saved for food at Japanese whaling 

 stations. The creation of refrigerating plants 

 at such stations is entirely practicable and hun- 

 dreds of tons of wholesome meat hitherto con- 

 verted into fertilizer should undoubtedly be 

 made available as food for a country now suf- 

 fering from a general meat shortage. 



Porpoises, which are merely small whales, 

 have long been used for food. The species 

 known as blackfish is used in the Faroe Islands 

 where porpoises have always been taken in large 

 numbers. The white whale has always been 

 used for food in arctic regions especially in 

 Hudson Bay and Greenland waters. 



Five years ago the porpoise fishery at Hat- 

 teras. North Carolina, supplied to a New York 

 firm several hundred pounds of porpoise meat, 

 which was mixed with five per cent, of pork and 

 made into sausage. It was sold through the 

 regular channels as first class sausage, and con- 

 sumers were unaware that it was made of por- 

 poise meat. 



