PART*X. 
THE RED-SNAPPER FISHERY AND THE HAVANA MARKET FISHERY OF KEY 
WEST, FLORIDA. . 
By SILAs STEARNS. 
1—THE RED-SNAPPER FISHERY. 
1—THE RED-SNAPPER FISHERY OF PENSACOLA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO. 
In the natural-history section of this report the distribution and habits of the red snapper 
have been so thoroughly described that it is unnecessary to advert to them here. 
This fishery is located almost entirely in the Gulf of Mexico, and in Florida it ranks next in 
importance to the sponge fishery. The vessels engaged in it are smacks and smaller vessels that 
preserve their catch in ice, and also the small open boats that fish near the harbor mouth, using no 
preservative of any kind. Pensacola is the greatest distributing point in the country for red 
snappers. All vessels belonging in Mobile, New Orleans, and other western ports land their fish 
here, to be shipped to their home ports. Outside of this, those cities depend largely on Pensacola 
for their supply of deep-water fish, as do all the inland towns and cities from the Gulf to the Oana- 
dian boundary. 
THE FISHING GROUNDS AND METHODS OF FISHING.—The grounds where the red snapper are 
taken lie along the coast from off Mobile Bar to the latitude of Tampa Bay, in depths of water 
ranging from 10 to 40 fathoms. Between Mobile Bar and Cape San Blas they seem to be gullies in 
level sand-flats, where all sorts of animal life have found shelter from the strong currents, provid- 
ing food for each other. These gullies are of all lengths and widths, some net much larger than 
a@ small vessel, while others are several miles long and quite wide. One harmonious feature 
about them is the way in which they lie, being parallel to one another, and running in nearly every 
case southeast and northwest. The farther to sea they extend the more life there is in them and 
the more coral and lime-rock is present, until a depth of 40 or 50 fathoms is reached. Beyond 50 
or 60 fathoms the bottom becomes sandy. 
Eastward and southward of Cape San Blas the snapper is found mainly living upon ridges 
and points of calcareous rock which protrude at more or less frequent intervals from the vast 
sand deserts of the Gulf bottom, In the shoaler water, rock shows itself in rather even ridges, or 
perhaps. in almost level tracts that rise but little above the surrounding sands; while in the deeper 
water, as from 19 to 35 fathoms, there are sharp uneven hills and valleys that often make a differ- 
ence of 3 or 4 fathoms in the depth of water within a distance of 200 feet. The latter region is 
the more thickly populated with fishes, but as on all grounds south of Cape San Blas, the red- 
snapper yields supremacy of power, in numbers, to the groupers (Epinephelus). They being here 
more abundant, more easily taken than the snapper and of not much value and in limited 
demand in the United States, these southern grounds are not as valuable to the red-snapper 
fishermen as those west of Oape San Blas where the groupers are not so troublesome. Still there 
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