132 



FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



Mr. Charles P. Dey, a Beaufort menhaden manufacturer of inteUigence and large experience, 

 asserts positively that this species deposits its eggs in November in the ocean a few miles dis- 

 tant from the inlet. Mr. Bell, of Beaufort, also a fish-scrap manufacturer of inteUigence and 

 wide experience, maintains that a portion of the spawning is done in Newport and other inside 

 rivers, as some of the large fish are annually taken in those waters in November and December. 

 On November 7, 1903, Mr. Worth secured a menhaden in full roe, and on November 18 he 

 found two males from which the milt was running freely. On December 2 schools of menhaden 

 from 1.5 inches long upward commenced running southward along the coast and were observ- 

 able from Shackleford Bank; the run increased for 4 days and continued for a week, most of the 

 schools remaining outside but some entering the harbor. Mr. Joseph Lewis, proprietor of 

 the Mullet Pond fishery on Shackleford Bank, states that schools of young menhaden winter 

 in that vicinity, and that when the drum comes in February and March the menhaden are 

 present in great quantities and constitute the principal food of the drum. 



There is found in the roof of the mouth of southern menhaden a large crus- 

 tacean parasite (Cymothoa praegustator) , which clings tightly and considerably 

 diminishes the capacity of the mouth. One of the local vernacular names of the 



Fig. 45. Gill of Menhaden. 

 A. First gill-arch, natural size. a. GiU-rakers. m. Branchiae, or gill proper. B. Six gill- 

 rakers, enlarged 50 times, showing projecting rows of hooks. 



menhaden ("bug-fish") is given in allusion to this fact. In some schools practi- 

 cally every fish has a parasite in its mouth. Another conspicuous crustacean 

 parasite {Lernaeonema radiata) is imbedded in the back muscles, the head parts 

 having the form of a grapple and the long egg-sacs projecting beyond the surface. 

 The menhaden is one of the most valuable of the North Carolina fishes. 

 Here as elsewhere it is caught chiefly for conversion into oil and guano, at facto- 

 ries located in the vicinity of Beaufort and Cape Fear. Fishing is done with 

 purse and haul seines in the ocean and sounds, and the industry gives employ- 

 ment to many people. In recent years there have been about 10 such establish- 

 ments, with upwards of 500 fishermen and shore hands connected therewith. 

 In 1902, the last year for which statistics are available, 18,862,000 pounds of 

 menhaden, worth $31,420, were taken by local fishermen, and about 30,000,000 

 pounds were caught by outside vessels to supply the factories in Brunswick 

 County. 



