THE FRENCH SARDINE INDUSTRY. 
7 
BAIT. 
In the fishery for sardines for canning, bait is almost as important as the boats 
and nets. In no other net fishery in the world is bait so extensively employed and 
so essential to the success of the industry. The scarcity of bait is always a serious 
matter in fishing districts, curtailing the catch, reducing the income of the fishermen, 
and often producing distress among the fish erf oik. It is therefore remarkable that 
for this indispensable article the French should be absolutely dependent on other 
countries and that the success of the fishery for sardines should be intimately related 
to the fisheries for other species in distant lands. 
In the early days of the sardine fishery, especially prior to the establishment of 
canning, small shrimp-like animals, about half an inch in length, were much used as 
bait. These are one of the natural foods of the sardine and are considered the best 
bait, but can not be procured in sufficient quantities to meet the demand and are now 
rarely used. The gathering of this kind of bait was an occupation of the women, 
who sought the schools in the bays and coves, catching them in large canvas bag-nets. 
They frequently made their best catches in water up to their necks, when the weather 
was bad and the water along the shores was thick. The Crustacea were heavily salted 
in barrels and retained until required. The taking of these little creatures appears 
to have been prohibited many years ago, because of the supposed destruction of fish 
eggs at the time of catching the shrimps. Although the interdiction is now removed, 
little effort is made to secure this form of bait. 
The bait now in general use is the salted eggs of the cod ( Gatins callarias ), though 
the eggs of hake, haddock, pollock, cusk, herring, mackerel, and many other fishes 
are also employed. Cod eggs are not known to possess any properties which make 
them superior to the eggs of several other species, but owe their prominence to the 
abundance of cod in regions on which the sardine fishermen depend for their bait 
supply. 
Well-prepared roe has a not unpleasant fishy odor; but the odor is not a matter 
of any special importance, and the production of any peculiar odor is neither sought 
nor realized. When the roe becomes old it acquires a rank smell. The sardines are 
attracted by the sight of the bait rather than by the smell, although it is possible that 
the strong odor of the old roe used in the early fishing, when the fish are more 
scattered, may serve to attract the fish. The color of salted roe is a delicate salmon. 
The ovarian membrane is normally transparent or light; when brown or dark, it is 
an indication of age or of fresh water (usually rain) having fallen in the barrel. 
The annual consumption of roe in France at present is 40,000 to 45,000 barrels, 
for which the fishermen pay about 1300,000. It is reported that in favorable seasons 
as many as 25,000 barrels of roe have been expended in Concarneau alone. 
For at least two centuries cod roe has been imported from Norway, which country 
has always furnished the greater part of the sardine bait. Other countries which 
have contributed supplies are Holland, Newfoundland, and the United States. From 
time to time the French Government has encouraged its own cod fishermen (at St. 
Pierre and Miquelon; on the Grand Banks; in the waters of Iceland, and in the North 
Sea) to preserve the roes of cod and other fish, and in 1816 offered a bounty of $4 a 
barrel for roe made from fish caught by them; but this and other inducements have 
had little effect on the supply from native sources. 
