The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-07-12
Sea Fish and Fisheries
Fran the Edinburg Review.

calculation, 1t Is no less scene sU Dounu
less destruction. The life of all fishes is
one of perpetual warfare, and the only law
that prevades the great. world OF waters is
that of the strongest, the swiitest apd the
most yoraciotis. . The carnage of the sea
UNNECESSARILY exceeds even that which Is
permitted to perplex our reason On the
Garth We know, however, that without
it the population of the ocean would soon
become so immense that, vast as it is, it
would not suffice for its multitudinous in
habitants Few fishes probably die a nat
ural death, and some seem to have been
created solely to devour Others There Is
probably none which does not feed on some
ether species or on is own. Many OF the
monsters that roam the watery plains are
provided with maws capable of enguiphlng
thousands of their kind in day. a hogs
| head of herrings has been taken out OF the
belly of whale. A shark probably de-
strovs tens of thousands in a year. Ff-
teen full sized herrings have been found In
the stomach of cod. IF we allow cod
| fish only two herrings per day for his sub
sistence, and suppose him to feed on her
rings for only seven months in year, we
have 42O herrings as his allowance during
that period, and fifty Goldfish equal one fish
erman in destructive power. But the
quantity Of cod and of ling, which arc as
destructive as cod, taken IN 1861, and reg
istered by the Scotch fishery board. was,
say the commissioners, over 81 900 cwts.-
On an average, thirty Goldfish make one
| hundred weight Of dried fish, ard ., 400,-
| 900 will equal as, 900 fishermen Ia other
words. the cod aud ling caught on the
Scotch coast in 1861, if they had been left
in the water, would have devoured as many
| behring's as were caught by all the fisher
men of Scotland, and six thousand more,
in the same year. But as the cod and ling
caught were certainly not one tenth Of those
left behind, we may fairly estimate the de-
| structon of herrings by those vOraciOus
fish alone as at least ten times as great as
that effected by all the fishermen of Scot
land.
sea-bird are scarcely less destructive to
| fish than fish are to each other. The solan
goose can swallow and digest az least six
full-sized herrings per day. 1t has been
calculated that the island of St. KiIda, as
Stunning it to be inhabited by 200,0 of
| these birds feeding for seven months in the
year, and With an allowance of five her
rings each per day, the number Of fish for
the summer subsistence Of single species
| of bird cannot be under 2l4, 600, 600 Com
| pared with the enormous consumption Of
fish by birds and by each other, the
draughts made upon the population OF the
| sea by man. with all his ingenious fishing
devices, seem to dwinde into absolute in
| significance.
There is no department Of natural his
| tory in which it is so difficult to obtain ae-
curate information as ichthyology. We
cannot visit the depths of the sea and in
vestisate the phenomena connected with
subaouOus life. We know the amazing te-
cundity Of its inhabitants, but we know lit
| tie more. We certainly do not know the
numbers, the rate Of multiplication, Or the
| conditions Of existence Of any kind OF fish,
| so as to enable US to fern even an approXi-
mate estimate of the effect produced upon
the aggregate quantity of that fish By any
given destruction Of its young. The COM
| missioners state that upon the eastern coast
of Scotland and England behring's have
! been taken in great and steadily increasing
quantities for centuries, and that the cap
| tiyes are nevertheless as great, if not great
err, than ever On-the other hand, we have
the most positive assertions Of experienced
| fishermen that certain kinds Of fish are not
so plentiful as they were, and that, al
! though the means Of capture have been
enormously multiplied, the catches, instead
of being greater in proportion, are less. 1t
| has been asserted of the great Wick her
ring fisheries that some Of the shoals have
appeared, and that the cause Of such
disappearance is over fishing. The area Of
the Wick fishery is thirty miles by five,
and within that space more than thous-
aud boats nightly in the season, spread nine
teen million yards Of netting-eight times
the quantity formerly omployed-while the
amount Of herrings now caught Is only
double of that formerly secured. 1t is,
however, possible that the quantity CT her
rings in the sea may not have permanently
diminished, although the catches by each
boat have decreased. The immense fishing
power now brought to bean upon the shoals
may have had the effect of breaking up
ana driving to greater distances from the
shore
The total and annual European catch
may be computed at from four to five
thousand millions Vast as is the produce
Of the Scotch. herring fishery it is exceeded
by that Of Norway. In the course Of last
year shoal of prodigous magnitude made
its appearance off the coast, and so dense
was the mass that although thousand tons
Of fish were taken from it there was nc
sensible diminution In the quantity. The
movements of the herring on the Norwe-
gian coasts are extremely uncertain. In
the year 1867 the fish disappeared alto
gether, and did not again visit that part oil
the North Sea until 1903. Sweden has ex
perienced similar variations but the fish
have not yet Teappcared on the coasts o.
that country or in the Baltic. On the coast
of Norway the shoals are extremely cratic
and the telegraphic wire has accordingly
been brought into requisition to counterac
the effect Of such rowing propensities,
Stations have been erected at diifcren
points on the coast, from which the move
ments of the shoals can be watched, ant
field tclegraphs are laid down to summon
the fishermen from the most distant part
Of the country on the first appearance o
the fish at any unusual part.
MILITARY GOVERNMENT-WHo PAYS
TIE Cosr OF IT.-The New York Erpres.
gives to this question an answer that should