The Tilefish 



Fish Hawk took tilefish in several places at depths of 70 to 134 

 fathoms. The indications of the apparent abundance of a new 

 and edible fish of large size made Professor Baird desirous of 

 obtaining fuller knowledge of its habitat and habits, in the hope 

 that an important new fishery might be developed. Various 

 causes conspired to delay the investigations which he planned 

 until 1882. In March and April of that year vessels arriving at 

 Philadelphia, New York and Boston reported having passed large 

 numbers of dead or dying fish scattered over an area of many 

 square miles, and from descriptions and specimens brought in it 

 was evident that the great majority of these fish were the tilefish. 

 Naturally these fish were not evenly distributed over the area in 

 which they were found, some observers reporting them as scatter- 

 ing, and others as at times so numerous that there would be as 

 many as 50 on the space of a square rod. As one account after 

 another came in, it became evident that a vast destruction of fish 

 had taken place, for vessels reported having sailed 40, 50, and 60 

 miles through floating fish; and in one case the schooner Navarino 

 ploughed for no less than 150 miles through waters dotted as far as 

 the eye could reach with dying fish. Capt. J. W. Collins esti- 

 mated that an area of 5,000 to 7,500 square miles was so thickly 

 strewn with dead or dying fish that their numbers must have ex- 

 ceeded the enormous number of 1,000,000,000. As there were no 

 signs of any disease, and no parasites found on the fish brought in 

 for examination, their death could not have been due to either of 

 these causes; and many conjectures were made as to the cause 

 of this wholesale destruction of deep-water fishes, such as ordi- 

 narily are unaffected by surface conditions. Submarine volcanoes, 

 heat, cold, and poisonous gases were among the agencies sug- 

 gested. Professor Verrill has noted the occurrence of a strip of 

 water, having a temperature of 48° to 50°, lying on the border of 

 the Gulf Stream slope, between the Arctic current on the one hand 

 and cold depths of the sea on the other. 



In 1880 and 1881 Professor Verrill dredged along the Gulf 

 Stream slope, obtaining in this warm belt, as he terms it, many 

 species of invertebrates characteristic of more southern localities. 

 In 1882 the same species were scarce or wholly absent from 

 places where they had previously been abundant; and this, taken 

 in connection with the occurrence of heavy northerly gales and 

 the presence of much inshore ice at the north, leaves little doubt 



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