FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 
7 
PREHISTORIC FISH 
When a fish dies it leaves no friends. The flesh is soon devoured, the gelatinous substance of the 
bones decays and leaves the phosphate of lime content to be absorbed by water. Hence comparatively 
few geologic traces of fish remain. 
The females of still other species, follow¬ 
ing the example of the Lobster, glue their 
eggs to the undersurface of their bodies. 
The male Sea Horse opens up a little 
pocket beneath its body, takes in the 
eggs from its mate, and carries them in 
the tiny pouch Nature provided until they 
hatch. Hundreds of perfectly formed Sea 
Horses are thus liberated at a hatching, so 
tiny in size the human eye can hardly 
distinguish them, yet perfectly formed. 
Not all fishes are oviparous. Some are 
viviparous, such as most Sharks, the Saw¬ 
fishes, the Rosefishes, the Rockfishes, the 
Surf Fishes, and many species of top 
minnows. 
The number of eggs laid varies widely 
in different species. Scientific census- 
takers of Uncle Sam report that the Her¬ 
ring lays about 25,000, the Sturgeon 
about 635,000, the Halibut as many as 
3,500,000, while the Cod has been known 
to lay more than 9,000,000. 
One can gauge the perils through which 
the various species of fish pass from the 
egg state to maturity by the number of 
eggs they spawn. It is demonstrable 
mathematically that if ah the eggs of a 
single female Herring were to produce 
similarly productive generations, in ten 
years the oceans would be overflowing 
with Herring, and all the other creatures 
of the sea literally would be crowded out 
of existence. 
ENEMIES OF FISHES 
Indeed, it has been proved that, if only 
three eggs from each female of each spe¬ 
cies should develop into adult fish simi¬ 
larly productive, fish life would multiply 
so rapidly that the seas would soon be¬ 
come vastly overcrowded. What does 
happen is that less than one egg in two 
million in the Cod produces a reproduc¬ 
ing Cod, and even in the Herring less 
than one in ten thousand successfully 
runs the gamut of existence. Hard, in¬ 
deed, would be the road of life insurance 
companies of the fish world! 
In this connection it is interesting to 
note that Nature’s need for females in 
many species exceeds the requirement for 
males. In the case of the Conger Eel, 
the ratio is nineteen females to every 
