Forest and Stream, March 10, 1892
THE MENHADEN.
Sea -- Finfish - Catch : Menhaden
A FISH of the herring family, a little larger than the river herring or alewife, is at present subject of heated discussion in the newspapers and in Congressional committee rooms. The struggle between the advocates of State control of the fisheries and the menhaden purse-seine interests has been sharp and protracted, but it will probably go against the commercial fishermen as heretofore. Massachusetts has closed Buzzard's Bay against the purse-seine on the ground that the menhaden is the principal food of certain larger fishes which inhabit this body of water for a longer or shorter portion of the year, and if this fish becomes scarce the food fishes will cease to come into the bay. The bluefish, the striped bass and the squeteague are the most important species known to feed upon menhaden at Buzzard's Bay; the bonita is another with the same feeding habits, but this is not now prized as a food fish nor on account of its game qualities. Practically the objection to the wholesale capture of menhaden arises from the fear of driving away bluefish.
What are the habits of the menhaden, the source of so much contention? In the Northern States it appears on the coast early in the spring or with the approach of summer and disappears in the fall. It swarms in the bays and sounds when the surface of the water reaches a temperature of about 51 degrees, and is often driven into brackish water by its enemies. The migrations of the menhaden have received comparatively little study. The fish come into the Chesapeake in February or March; they are on the New Jersey coast early in May; enormous schools have been seen in New York Bay on May 10; by the middle of June they have appeared in Long Island Sound and range eastward to Nantucket and Buzzard's Bay. The northern limit of the species is the Bay of Fundy; but in some seasons it does not visit the waters north of Cape Cod. In the fall the schools leave the shores except south of Hatteras, where the fish remains throughout the year. Where the menhaden spends the winter is uncertain, but there is reason to believe that the young at least seek the deep parts of bays when cold weather sets in. The great schools are represented as swimming out to sea to the inner boundary of the Gulf Stream.
The east coast of Florida has been considered to mark the southern limit of the common menhaden, but Dr. Heushall recently sent a fish from west Florida which appears to be the same as the menhaden of Northern waters.
The food of this fish, if we may judge from the examination of stomach contents, consists chiefly of microscopic animal and vegetable organisms usually surrounded by a mass of dark greenish or brownish mud. It seems certain also that oily substances floating at the surface form an important element of its food. Fishermen believe that menhaden consume the minute red and green crustaceans that swarm in the water and help support the mackerel and the alewife. Sometimes the menhaden takes food which makes it liable to decay and renders it unsuitable for bait.
About the spawning of the menhaden little is known; it may be considered established, however, that the fish does not breed upon the coast of New England and New York, although Capt. Atwood once saw a few ripe females in December at Provincetown, Mass., which were detained in the creeks by accident.
About Nov. 7, 1874, Delaware Bay was crowded from Cape May to Cape Henlopen with unusually large menhaden, nearly three-fourths of which contained eggs approaching maturity; but 60 hours later not one of them remained on the coast.
On. Nov. 27, 1879, Col. McDonald obtained a menhaden from Hampton Creek, Va., in which the eggs were nearly ripe. It has been reported, but not verified, that the fish have been seen off the Virginia coast about Christmas so ripe that eggs and milt could be easily pressed from them.
The enemies of the menhaden are numerous and formidable. Among the whales the fin-back and the bone whale are especially destructive. Dolphins and porpoises consume enormous numbers. Acres of sharks have been known to surround schools of the fish and annihilate them. One observer has counted 100 menhaden from a single shark's stomach. The horse mackerel is another scourge to the menhaden, and the swordfish and sailfish are not much less destructive. The ravages of the bluefish are so well known as to require only passing notice. The cod, the pollock, the whiting, the bonito, striped bass, and weakfish all take a prominent part in the slaughter of this helpless fish. In southern waters the gar pike, the large-mouthed black bass, the catfishes and the tarpon prey upon menhaden. The commercial fisheries take about 700,000,000 annually, but these are a very small fraction of the total consumption.
It has been stated by Dr. Goode that the mission of the menhaden is to be eaten. Men use it as food fresh, salted or smoked; also in the form of sardines, extract of fish, etc. The scrap left after pressing out the oil is fed to cattle and poultry. The principal uses of the fish are for bait and for the manufacture of oil and fertilizers. The commercial products are worth upward of two million dollars annually; the value of the menhaden to the angler and the line-fishermen is best appreciated when the caprice of the fish, or its sensitiveness to temperature, result in its absence from its accustomed haunts.