﻿FISH-SCRAP FERTILIZER INDUSTRY OF ATLANTIC COAST. 13 



111 this connection the following statement, quoted from Smith, 1 is 

 of great interest : 



By the first week in November the development of the reproductive organs 

 had progressed so far that the approach of the spawing period appeared to be 

 imminent in the fish caught close to land on the ocean shores of Maryland, 

 Virginia, and North Carolina. On November 6 large hauls of menhaden off 

 the Maryland coast contained fish from 9 to 12 inches long that were very 

 nearly ripe, and on November 7, 9, and 13 small quantities of eggs or milt could 

 be forced by gentle pressure from most of the fish examined, taken on the 

 same grounds. On November 13 a female menhaden 11 inches long, caught in 

 a school off the Virginia coast appeared to be spent, November 16 a similar 

 specimen with shriveled and empty ovaries was found among some almost ripe 

 fish on the North Carolina coast. In the latter part of November eggs or milt 

 could be forced by gentle pressure from nearly all menhaden caught south of 

 Cape Henry. 



Investigations, carried on by the Bureau of Fisheries during the 

 summer of 1895, extending from June 29 to August 6, showed that 

 the menhaden were spawning in the waters off the coast of Maine 

 during that period. It is the belief of the fishermen of that region 

 that they spawn throughout the summer. 



PREDATORY ENEMIES. 



The immense and clumsy schools of menhaden, swimming in open 

 water, fall an easy prey to all the large carnivorous aquatic animals 

 frequenting the Atlantic coastal waters. Beginning with the 

 whales, the largest of these, the destruction by them in former years 

 was considerable, a single mouthful of a whale representing, per- 

 haps, a hogshead of fish. The larger sharks attack them, but destruc- 

 tion by them is slight when compared with that of the dogfish moving 

 and attacking in schools. Other fish, such as the horse mackerel, 

 the pollock, the striped bass, the sea trout, the swordfish, the bayonet- 

 fish, and, possibly, the codfish, are counted among their destructive 

 enemies. The bluefish and the bonito, however, are regarded as 

 the greatest destroyers of the menhaden, as they not only consume 

 great numbers of them, but wantonly cut and destroy countless 

 others. A school of bluefish are credited with attacking a school 

 of menhaden with such ferocity as to leave a wake of blood 

 and mangled fish for miles, and destroying the school utterly. 

 Baird 2 estimated the number of bluefish over 3 pounds in weight 

 in New England waters at one thousand million. Each fish he 

 credits with the destruction of 10 fish, or 2^ pounds, per day. Dur- 

 ing the four summer months, he calculates, this number of bluefish 



1 Smith, Hugh M., Notes on an Investigation of the Menhaden Fishery in 1894, with 

 , Special Reference to the Food Fishes Taken, II. S. Fish Comm. Bui., 1895, p. 285. 



2 Natural History of Important Food Fishes of the South Shore of New England. 

 II. The Bluefish. U. S. Fish Comm., Rept. 1871-2, p. 235. 



