﻿FISH-SCRAP FERTILIZER INDUSTRY OF ATLANTIC COAST. 11 



water lying oceanward, appears more plausible. An exploration of 

 ocean temperatures has shown that there are strata lying offshore and 

 at a depth of 50 to 100 fathoms whose temperature is about 50° to 

 55° F. It is suggested that the fish swimming oceanward at the 

 beginning of cold weather, and being driven downward by the 

 chilled surface water, strike the warm strata and are held there dur- 

 ing the winter by the surrounding barriers of colder strata. In the 

 spring, with the removal of these barriers, they swim shoreward 

 again to their accustomed feeding grounds. This accounts, further- 

 more, for their prompt appearance offshore as soon as the water there 

 reaches a temperature of 50° F. Their emaciated condition in the 

 spring would show the scarcity of food in the region of their winter's 

 stay. Indeed, they are so " thin " that a thousand spring fish 

 frequently yields only a half gallon of oil as compared with 10 to 15 

 gallons of oil produced by an equal number of fall fish. 1 



HABITS. 



The menhaden swim in schools made up almost always of large 

 numbers. Schools have been reported 20 miles in length, but this 

 size is exceptional. The fish in the schools are densely massed, not 

 only side by side but one above the other. They produce a rippling 

 in the water which is discoverable at a distance and which betrays 

 the presence of the schools to the fishermen. Their location is indi- 

 cated also by flocks of gulls which follow the schools. 



The schools frequent the larger bays and inlets such as Chesapea'ke 

 and Delaware Bays and Long Island Sound ; these and other similar 

 waters formerly constituted the main fishing grounds. But they are 

 found also in deeper waters opposite the entrances to bays and sounds 

 and off promontories. Thirty years ago it was their habit also to 

 ascend rivers as far as the brackish water would permit. This they 

 no longer do to a conspicuous degree. While they are not so much in 

 evidence perhaps near the shore, there is no evidence that they are 

 decreasing in numbers. They appear to be the most numerous fish 

 on the Atlantic coast. The maintenance of the catch year after year, 

 however, can not be taken as proof that the menhaden is not decreas- 

 ing in numbers, unless it be shown that the maintenance of the catch 

 is not the result of increased skill in fishing. 



FOOD. 



The examination of the stomach contents of a large number of men- 

 haden at various times and from numerous localities has revealed 

 only large quantities of dark material, resembling the silt such as is 

 found on the bottom in sheltered and quiet water near river mouths. 



1 " Occasionally fat fish are taken in the spring, indicating that food is not always 

 absent from the winter abode of the menhaden." Kendall, Bureau of Fisheries. Private 

 communication. 



