242 
BULLETIN OP THE BUREAU OP FISHERIES 
ENEMIES 
Very little has been published concerning the so-called enemies of the salt-water 
smelt, although doubtless it has many. Bloch (1796) mentioned at some length a 
parasite infesting almost all of the fish he had examined. He said that ordinarily 
they were on the upper part of the back; sometimes in the muscles, where they were 
occasionally completely buried. One was on the head near the eye. It was only 
necessary to hold the fish to the light to perceive the parasite, as the smelt was 
transparent and the parasite opaque; and he stated that the “worm” would live on 
dead fish for many days, as he had observed it on those sent from Hamburg. 
Day (1884, p. 124) says that the picked dogfish (Acanthias vulgaris) destroy 
large numbers of them. Smitt (1895, p. 874) said “Man is not the only enemy 
which the smelt has to fear; it often falls victim to predatory fishes and waterfowl . ’’ 
Under date of April 17, 1878, in his notes, Atkins indicated that on good authority 
a salmon brought from St. John in July had been opened and found to contain six 
smelts, and that Commissioner Stilwell said that at Bickford’s (a fish dealer in 
Bangor), the preceding summer, a salmon was found to have smelt in it. 
Venning (1902, p. 493) wrote that in his boyhood the trout from the rivers 
(New Brunswick) came down in the spring in large numbers to meet the smelts com- 
ing in to spawn. 
Chambers (1902) stated that the arrival of the autumnal run of smelts in the 
St. Lawrence River, in the vicinity of Quebec early in December, 1902, was quickly 
followed by that of a number of porpoises that remained for some days disporting 
themselves in front of the city. He said that these unusual visitors apparently were 
in pursuit of the toothsome little smelt, and the latter apparently were aware of the 
fact, for during the time that their monster enemies remained in the neighborhood 
the smelt were conspicuous by their absence, and the smelt fisher fished in vain. 
After the porpoises left the smelt resumed biting. 
On April 26, 1903, in a brook flowing into Casco Bay, Brunswick, Me., the pres- 
ent writer caught 11 brook trout from 5.75 to 7 inches long, averaging nearly 6.4 
inches, all of which, among such things as caddis-fly larva cases and sand, contained 
many smelt eggs. The sand probably was ingested with the smelt eggs. 
On May 13, 1903, 13 specimens of sticklebacks ( Gasterosteus aculeatus), all 
females, ranging from 2.36 to 3 inches in length, were caught in the tidal portion of 
a creek flowing into Casco Bay at Freeport, Me. One individual 2.67. inches long 
had its stomach distended with recently hatched smelt fry. 
Twelve specimens of another species ( Gasterosteus bispinosus) , ranging from 1.6 
to 1.87 inches in length, were taken. All were distended with smelt fry with the 
exception of one, which contained only a few fry and a lot of some unidentified material. 
One of six specimens of the four-spined stickleback ( Apeltes quadracus) , 1.8 to 
2 inches long, was also found to be distended with smelt fry. The others contained 
other material or were empty. All but one of the eight specimens of the nine-spined 
stickleback ( Pungitius pungitius) , 2.16 to 2.63 inches long, contained more or less 
smelt fry. 
