﻿10 BULLETIN" 2, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



However, this theory is scarcely tenable when it is remembered 

 that the menhaden are never seen south of the southernmost point 

 of Florida, and that during the winter they are never seen north of 

 northernmost Florida. So the intervening stretch of coastal waters 

 must accommodate the myriads of fish forming the immense schools 

 visible farther north during the summer. The fact that there is only 

 one fish scrap factory on the Atlantic coast side of Florida is abun 

 dant evidence that this is not the winter retreat of the Atlantic men- 

 haden. The Florida menhaden, besides, possess different charac- 

 teristics from the northern. They are unmistakably different in 

 size and coloration. In fact, the fish caught on the different sections 

 of the coast are peculiar to those sections; those in certain sections 

 are infested with certain parasites not found on those from other 

 sections. This fact is almost incontestable evidence that the fish 

 thus characterized could not have been a part of a general migratory 

 school the other members of which being entirely free from the para- 

 sites. 



The size of the fish, as well as other characteristics, varies, those of 

 a certain size being peculiar to a certain part of the coast. Roughly 

 the largest fish, averaging about 12 inches in length, are found in the 

 waters off the New England States; those taken in the Long Island 

 region are about 10 inches; those off New Jersey and Delaware about 

 9 inches ; those in the Chesapeake Bay region about 8 inches ; and those 

 found below Cape Hatteras about 6 to 7 inches in length. 1 It does 

 not seem in the least to trouble the adherents of the coastal migra- 

 tion theory that the large fish characteristic of the New England 

 coast always escape capture as they pass the southern coast twice 

 a year. 



With regard to the second hypothesis it should be said that in 

 those instances where it is known definitely that fish hibernate in a 

 state of torpidity it is generally where that course of action is forced 

 upon them. Thus it is restricted to fish in those bodies of water 

 which are thoroughly chilled during the winter. Their torpidity is 

 induced by the low temperature. It is difficult to believe that a fish 

 in the ocean, where all agreeable temperatures are to be had, would 

 willingly search out a spot, at some great depth and corresponding 

 pressure, where the temperature was sufficiently chilling to induce 

 torpidity and where a radical change in habits would have to be 

 undergone. In addition, a fish once rendered torpid in the depths of 

 the ocean would remain there, as the conditions there would be per- 

 manent. 



The third alternative, the assumption that the fish, while migrating 

 equatorially to a limited extent during the season of warm coastal 

 water, migrate abatically for their winter's sojourn in the warmer 



1 Hathaway, Bull. Bureau of Fisheries, 1908, Part I, p. 271. 



