Dead Menhaden on the Shore of Staten Island? 
WILLIAM T. Davis 
(WITH PLATE 4) 
On the 12th day of October 1679? Jasper Dankers and Peter 
Sluyter visited the south shore of Staten Island and they record: 
“Lying rotting on the shore were thousands of fish called marsh- 
baucken, which are about the size of a common carp. These fish 
swim close together in large schools, and are pursued by other fish 
‘so that they are forced upon the shore in order to avoid the mouths 
of their enemies, and when the water falls they are left to die, 
food for the eagles and other birds of prey.” 
It had been supposed that menhaden or mossbunkers would not 
again be found washed onto the shores of Staten Island in the vast 
‘numbers described by Dankers and Sluyter. This opinion, how- 
ever, does not appear to have been well founded, for on June 3, 
1920, the writer saw, upon reaching Tottenville, men collecting 
dead and decaying fish near the ferry landing, and on the shore 
near the Billopp House hundreds of dead menhaden were found. 
Along the shore at Ward Point and for a mile in the direction of 
Richmond Valley the dead fish were in great numbers. Later it 
was learned that they were by the hundreds on the beach at Princes 
Bay, near Lemon Creek and the lighthouse. The fish were so 
numerous that the beach in places appeared white with them when 
seen at a short distance, and upon a nearer approach their bodies 
were seen to touch and oftentimes to lie in piles. Never before 
had the writer seen so many dead fish together on any beach visited. 
These menhaden were mostly of full size, that is about ten or 
twelve inches in length. (PL. 4.) 
Mr. Melville Decker told me that some years ago a great many 
menhaden had come ashore, but not as many as on this occasion. 
1 Read at a meeting of the Nature Study Club September 22, 1920. 
2 Clute’s, Bayles’, and Morris’ histories of Staten Island are in error in 
giving the date of the visit of Dankers and Sluyter as 1676; it should be 
1670. ; 
3 
