242 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



than one million individuals, averaging 5 or 6 pounds each. Those, 

 however, who have seeu the blue-fish in its native waters, and realized 

 the immense number there existing, will be quite willing to admit that 

 probably not one fish in a thousand is ever taken by man. If, therefore, 

 we have an actual capture of one million, we may allow one thousand 

 millions as occurring in the extent of our coasts referred to, even neg- 

 lecting the smaller ones, which, perhaps, should also be taken into the 

 account. 



An allowance of ten fish per day to each blue-fish is not excessive, ac- 

 cording to the testimony elicited from the fishermen and substantiated 

 by the stomachs of those examined ; this gives ten thousand millions 

 of fish destroyed per day. And as the period of the stay of the blue- 

 fish on the New England coast is at least one hundred and twenty days, 

 we have in round numbers twelve hundred million millions of fish de- 

 voured in the course of a season. Again, if each blue-fish, averaging 5 

 pounds, devours or destroys even half its own weight of other fish per 

 day, (and I am not sure that the estimate of some witnesses of twice this 

 weight is not more nearly correct,) we will have, during the same period, 

 a daily loss of twenty-five hundred million pounds, equal to three hundred 

 thousand millions for the season. 



This estimate applies to three or four year-old fish, of at least three to 

 five pounds in weight. We must, however, allow for those of smaller 

 size, and a hundred fold or more in number, all engaged simultaneously 

 in the butchery referred to. 



We can scarcely conceive of a number so vast ; and however much we 

 may diminish, within reason, the estimate of the number of blue-fish 

 and the average of their captures, there still remains an appalling ag- 

 gregate of destruction. While the smallest blue-fish feed upon the di- 

 minutive fry, those of which we have taken account capture fish of large 

 size, many of them, if not capable of reproduction, being within at least 

 one or two years of that period. 



It is estimated by very good authority, that of the spawn deposited 

 by any fish at a given time, not more than 30 per cent, are hatched, and 

 that less than 10 per cent, attain an age when they are able to take 

 care of themselves. As their age increases, the chances of reaching ma- 

 turity become greater and greater. It is among the small residuum of 

 this class that the agency of the blue-fish is exercised, and whatever 

 reasonable reduction may be made in our estimate, we cannot doubt that 

 they exert a material influence. 



The rate of growth of the blue-fish is also an evidence of the immense 

 amount of food they must consume. The young fish, which first appear 

 along the shores of Vineyard Sound, about the middle of August, are 

 about five inches in length. By the beginning of September, however, 

 they have reached six or seven inches, and on their re appearance in 

 the second year, they measure about twelve or fifteen inches. 1 



After this they increase in a still more rapid ratio. A fish which 

 passes eastward from Vineyard Sound in the spring, weighing 5 pounds, 

 is represented, according to the general impression, by the 10 to 15 

 pound fish of the autumn. If this be the fact, the fish of 3 or 4 pounds, 

 which pass along the coast of North Carolina in March, return to it in 

 October, weighing 10 to 15 pounds. The only parallel to the voracity and 

 rapacity of the blue-fish in our waters is, perhaps, to be met with in the 

 case of the common pickerel ; and an experiment quoted by Mr. Theodore 



1 According to Genio C. Scott, the blue-fish weighs 2 pounds when it appears on the 

 coast in its second year, (aged twelve months,) and by autumn, or at eighteen months, 

 they weigh from 3 to 5 pouuds. 



