FISH-SCRAP FERTILIZER INDUSTRY OF ATLANTIC COAST. 13 
In 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 o, 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, IT. 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. 
