April, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
219 
THE TUNA CONSIDERED AS A GAME FISH 
UNTIL VERY RECENT YEARS THIS FISH TRAVELLED INCOGNITO IN THE ATLANTIC AND 
UNDER THE NAME HORSE MACKEREL WAS DESPISED BY FISHERMEN AS UNFIT FOR FOOD 
By LEONARD HULIT, Associate Editor of FOREST AND STREAM 
I X preparing this article I wish to make 
an apology to the reader for writing on 
a subject describing in detail many of 
thp qualities as a “game fish,’’ for 1 must 
acknowledge that I have never had the 
good fortune to kill one on my own rod. 
While I have been among them where 
they were churning the water into foam 
as they rushed the food through the brine, 
and have witnessed the battle of others, 
still so far my hands are guiltless of their 
blood. 
For many years, and as a matter of fact, 
until very recent years this fish travelled 
incognito in our waters, known always as 
the “horse mackerel.” It was despised by 
the market fishermen as a destroying nui¬ 
sance and by the hand line men as a thing 
not only to be avoided but to be destroyed 
on any and every occasion and by any 
means, no matter how foul. It was also 
regarded as unfit for food and was al¬ 
ways thrown away when captured; yet to¬ 
day it is sought for in every way by the 
fishermen and market men as well as the 
housewife, who knows so well how to pre¬ 
pare most delicious salads from the canned 
product and with just a little deft touch 
here, and a little something added there, 
the average guest has eaten and praised 
the "chicken” salad of such and such a 
one as a delicacy “par excellence.” 
I will not attempt to be positive in the 
matter of who was the first to assert that 
the “horse mackerel” of the Atlantic and 
the “tuna” of the Mediterranean and the 
Pacific was one and the same fish, but I 
am quite well convinced that the honor be¬ 
longs to Mr. L. P. Streeter, of Chicago, 
Ill. For many years we fished together 
over many waters and he was a very close 
observer of any and everything pertaining 
to fish life. He is an enthusiastic member 
of the Catalina Tuna Club and has spent 
much of his available time in pursuit of 
the species around the Catalina Islands. 
Perhaps there are but few men in the 
states who might speak with greater au¬ 
thority on the subject than he. Certain 
it is, however, that the Asbury Park Fish¬ 
ing Club took up the subject in earnest 
and had the facts established through 
scientific investigation, and now the de¬ 
stroying vandal of but a few years since 
has become the object of the most intense 
desire among those who are able and are 
prepared for its pursuit. Beautiful prizes 
are offered by clubs for the capture of the 
largest each season and we no longer see 
the fish wasted when taken in nets, but 
carefully iced and shipped 'where they 
command good prices. 
' There are but few fish which have a 
greater range than the tuna. According 
to the U. S. Fish Commission its Atlantic 
range is from the Gulf of the St. Law¬ 
rence on the north to and across the Gulf 
of Mexico and throughout the tropical 
waters of South America. The Pacific is 
visited by it in nearly all of its more tem¬ 
perate zones, as well as the Mediterranean 
sea. It ranges out from that body of 
water along the European coast up as far 
as the Lofoden Islands where it seems to 
pass out of view. 
More than thirty years ago Prof. G. 
Brown Goode, of the Smithsonian In¬ 
stitution, in commenting on this fish ob¬ 
served that our naturalists had bestowed 
but little research of a really scientific 
nature in any attempt to place it in 
a proper and intelligent category. As a 
matter of fact, until very recently but lit¬ 
tle could be gleaned from any channel ex¬ 
cept the knowledge imparted by the fisher¬ 
men, which, though honest and given with 
the sincerest motives, was at best but 
confusing for no two of them gave the 
same version as to the time of arrival and 
departure from a given latitude or their 
exact feeding habits. Much has been 
learned within the past ten years which 
goes to clear up the disputed points in 
relation to many important characteristics. 
T HE tuna frequently reaches a weight 
of one thousand pounds and even 
greater weight than this has been rec¬ 
orded. It is a most voracious feeder and 
when travelling in schools works havoc 
amongst weakfish, bluefish and other food 
fishes; its principal food, however, seems 
to consist of the herring when they can be 
located, which it gorges by the hundred. 
Despite its great bulk it is exceedingly swift 
in the water and I have frequently seen 
them, when in pursuit of their prey, rise 
from the depths with such speed as to vault 
their bodies several feet into the air. They 
would drop back with a splash making one 
feel thankful that their landing was not 
in the boat. Whether or not they gorge 
the victim of their pursuit immediately on 
striking it, I am unable to state. It is 
certain that I have never been able to see 
any object in their jaws as they spring 
into the air. According to Capt. N. E. 
Atwood, of Massachusetts, a veteran fish¬ 
erman and icthyologist, the tuna is per¬ 
sistently pursued by the killer whale, and 
he once saw one in the jaws of that an¬ 
imal. As Captain Atwood is one who in 
the years past furnished much information 
to the U. S. Commission, as well as to the 
Academy of Natural Science, there can 
be no question of the accuracy of his 
statements. He says that when the fish 
first appear in our waters in June they 
seem to be very thin and poorly nourished 
but soon improve in condition and by 
Autumn are in the most robust condition. 
When one was taken in any manner, in 
the days of which he writes, the head and 
belly were tried out and as much as twenty 
gallons of fine quality oil would be taken 
from a large specimen. Continuing, he 
says although occurring in large numbers 
and of remarkable size, no effort is made 
toward capturing them and when one is 
killed the flesh is allowed to rot along 
shore. The flesh may be used in small 
quantity for chickens, he observes, but 
seldom or never for human food. These 
observations are an example of how prog¬ 
ress slowly works out, as is also the fact 
that the writer in his early manhood days 
saw tons of the finest Bonito carted to the 
compost heap for fertilizing purposes. At 
that time they were regarded as poisonous 
and entirely unfit for food; to-day those 
same fish would command $400 per ton. 
I T is most astonishing how men who have 
passed their lives in one vocation do 
overlook the most primary facts of 
daily and in some instances hourly occur¬ 
rence. It is not unusual to hear the tuna 
and the albicore classed as the same fish 
when they are as wide apart as the poles, 
there being no similarity save in shape 
which is something in common. Colors 
are different and the albicore of our 
waters never approximate the weight of 
the tuna. I question if the} - ever exceed 
fifty pounds in weight along our coast. 
It is not probable that tuna fishing can ever 
become popular as an angler’s pursuit save 
to a restricted number who have unlimited 
time at their disposal as well as a ple¬ 
thoric purse. The conditions under which 
it must be caught if at all are, to say the 
least, “strenuous.” Days, weeks or even a 
month may be spent in the search for them 
without a strike as they may be feeding 
on something to their liking at the depths 
of the sea. The custom now is to have 
fishermen who are passing out to sea daily 
keep watch for their appearance and a pre¬ 
concerted signal is given when they are 
on the feed at the surface of the' water. 
One wealthy resident along shore arranges 
after the following manner with the men 
who are off shore in their boats. A cash 
reward is offered for the first available 
school of tuna discovered close enough 
in shore to be reached in comfortable time, 
or before they settle. If that is done and 
he is placed among the fish, then; the re¬ 
ward is doubled; and as a last bonus if 
successful in hooking and killing a fish, 
the reward is again doubled, so it is at all 
times worth while, keeping an open eye 
for the ocean racehorse. During the sum¬ 
mer of 1915 Mr. Jacob Wertheim, of Deal, 
N. J., succeeded in bringing to gaff the 
largest ever taken on rod and reel after a 
battle lasting one hour and forty-five min¬ 
utes, during which time the fish towed the 
heavy bank skiff more than six miles, the 
weight of the fish was two hundred and 
eighty-six pounds. The following sum¬ 
mer Mr. Joseph Cawthorn, fishing with 
Mr. Wertheim, hooked a monster, which 
after a battle lasting two hours and thirty- 
five minutes, and after towing a very 
heavy dory stern foremost more than 
twelve miles, succeeded in unhooking him¬ 
self to liberty. This fish was in plain view 
a number of times, and was estimated at 
about seven hundred pounds in weight. 
No one who has never fought a rush¬ 
ing, plunging, heavy ' fish to a stand¬ 
still on rod and reel, can even im¬ 
agine the terrific strain on arms and 
shoulder. In this class of work the best 
(continued on page 245) 
