A FLEA FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROTECTION OF FLORIDA FISH 
AND FISHERIES. 
By JAMES A. HENSHALL, M. D., 
Superintendent of United States Fish Commission Station, Bozeman, Monatna. 
The principal fishing industries of Florida are prosecuted on the Gulf coast, at 
Pensacola, Tampa, Punta Gorda, and Key West. The shad fishery of the St. Johns 
Eiver is also very important, and considerable business in this direction is done at 
various places on the east coast. At Pensacola the principal fish product is the red 
snapper, a fish of good size and with firm flesh of fine quality, which bears trans- 
portation well. It is taken with hook and line on the snapper banks in from 10 to 50 
fathoms and from 10 to 50 miles offshore. At Cedar Key, Tampa, and Punta Gorda 
the bay and brackish-water fishes are taken by haul seines on the shores of the bays 
and inlets; the varieties mostly handled are mullet, redfish, or “bass,” as it is known 
commercially, sea trout, pompano (the best of all fishes for the table), Spanish mackerel, 
jackfish, etc. The mullet is, perhaps, the most important, as it is shipped fresh, on 
ice, while large quantities are cured by salt. 
At Key West many of the fishes are entirely different from those of the other 
waters of the State, and belong rather to the West Indian fauna. They comprise the 
coral fishes, salt-water fishes par excellence. All are taken with hook and line, as 
the various seines and nets can not be utilized owing to the ragged coral formation of 
the shores and reefs. The principal fish are kiugfish, mackerel, groupers, snappers, 
grunts, jewfish, etc., which exist in great variety. The catch is almost entirely con- 
sumed at Key West. Formerly a fleet of smacks carried live fish in wells to Havana 
until a prohibitory import duty was imposed by the captain-general upon fishermen 
from the United States, which compelled the abandonment of the industry and the 
sale of the smacks to Spanish fishermen, who, besides taking fish contrary to law in 
Florida waters, carry on a nefarious trade in smuggling vile rum and poor cigars. 
The Gulf coast line of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas is 
more than 6,000 miles in length, being about 1,000 miles longer than that of the Middle 
Atlantic States. Of this extent Florida has nearly 3,000 miles, or about one-half. A 
statistical review of the U. S. Fish Commission, published some ten years ago, says: 
The Gulf States occupy a favorable location for supplying a large part of the country with 
marine products. A dozen or more States in the Lower Mississippi Valley have their nearest coastal 
connections through these States, and it will probably be in response to this section’s demand for 
marine food products that the Gulf fisheries will reach their highest development. 
The fulfillment of this prediction has been realized, for at present a large demand 
exists for the food-fishes of Florida in all the South Atlantic States, while the choicer 
varieties, as red snapper, pompano, Spanish mackerel, etc., are shipped to all the 
principal northern cities. The same report says : 
This region is favored with many highly esteemed food-fishes, which occur here in greater abun- 
dance than elsewhere on the coasts of the United States. The undeveloped resources of the Gulf 
States invite outside attention and afford a promising outlook for future increase. The possibilities of 
the region in the matter of oyster production and cultivation are believed to be great. 
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