56 
THE BOOK OF FISHES 
everyday foreightweeks,the 
best their combined efforts 
could produce was 68 casks. 
To-day Sturgeons are rare 
prizes, worth several hun¬ 
dred dollars each. 
SQUIRREL HAKE 
(Urophycis chuss) 
{For illustration see Color 
Plate, page 43) 
International Newsreel 
“HAM AND EGGS” FROM CHESAPEAKE BAY 
For years Chesapeake Bay fishermen have fished the Menhaden com¬ 
mercially for its oil and for the production of fertilizer. The oil is pressed 
out of the cooked fish and sold for use in making soap, paints and a few 
other commodities and the remaining solid matter is sold for fertilizing 
material. In recent years, however, it has been found that the dried fish 
flakes, which were going into the ground, will make hens lay more eggs and 
will induce hogs to put on fat in record-breaking time. Specially con¬ 
structed ships make big hauls of thousands of these Menhaden. 
The Squirrel Hake and 
its close relative, the White 
Hake, Urophycis tenuis, be¬ 
long to the Codfish family 
and are found on the 
Atlantic coast from Lab¬ 
rador to Hatteras. They 
are both ground fishes, stay¬ 
ing close to the bottom. 
They are said to bite best 
on moonlight nights. The 
Hake fisheries rank about 
sixth in the number of tons 
taken in New England 
waters annually. They are 
used extensively in making 
boneless Cod and for corn¬ 
ing. Their air bladders 
find wide use in the manu¬ 
facture of isinglass and glue. 
The Squirrel and White 
Hakes resemble each other 
so closely that even to the 
trained eye of the zoologist 
the difference is not marked. 
The most tangible distinc¬ 
tion is in the number and size 
of the scales. These are 
smaller, and therefore more 
numerous, in the White 
Hake. In the latter there 
are about 135 or 140 oblique 
rows of scales from the bran¬ 
chial opening to the caudal 
fin, as compared with about 
100 in the Squirrel Hake. 
These Hakes are not to 
be confused with another 
group of fishes sometimes 
called Hakes, but more 
commonly known as the 
Whitings. The represen¬ 
tative species of the latter 
it was not much in favor, though New Yorkers ate 
some of it as “Albany beef”; but in later decades 
it became a popular market fish, and along Dela¬ 
ware Bay were hundreds of fishermen who earned 
their living catching Sturgeon and making caviar. 
Women and children spent their long winter eve¬ 
nings making Sturgeon nets. In all the bay-side 
towns there were Sturgeon boats awaiting the com¬ 
ing of the fish. 
In those days the Sturgeons were plentiful, and 
caviar sold for from $9 to $12 a cask, which con¬ 
tained 135 pounds, and the output ran up into the 
thousands of casks. But overfishing and heedless¬ 
ness of consequences sealed the doom of the fishery. 
Caviar went up to $120 a cask, even as far back as 
1902, and although hundreds of fishermen fished 
group is Merluccius bili- 
nearis, sometimes called the Silver Hake. 
CUSK (Brosmius brosme) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 43) 
The Cusk is a member of the Codfish family, 
inhabiting rocky ledges in deep water in the North 
Atlantic above Cape Cod. It reaches the coast 
of Greenland and swings around the North Atlantic 
basin to Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. 
This fish disappears from a given haunt after 
prolonged fishing and moves on to some other ledge. 
After a lapse of years it may return to the deserted 
ledge again. 
The food of the Cusk consists of Mollusks and 
small crustaceans. It is an excellent food fish and is 
widely caught in the present New England fisheries. 
