The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-03-29
COD-EISHING.
How the Cod Saves Himself from Death by
Taking Ballast

How the Cod Saves Himself from Death nv
Taking Ballast.
That a fish should ever do ANYTHING
so unishlike as to take in ballast would
strike many people as paradoxicaI.
Yet those who have gone down to sea
in ships and are learned in fin-bearers'
lore testify to the reality of this phe-
nomeuon. The cod is the fish which
lays himself open to this cruel charge
and is known to actually gulp down
stones almost as large as foot ball
and more than one of them. too. WHY
it does so reporter learned from a
veteran cod-6sherman yesterday.
''Why, yes" said he, ''of course cod
fish take in ballast. Why, I've found
eight or ten stones inside the fish,
NAV after we've caught him. The cod
takes in stone in order to keep himself
at the bottom during a gale When
you are cod-fishing you can always tell
If there is to be a gale, or whether a
gale has just passed that way. Then
you get In regular quarry. A good
gale of course carries the cod up to the
surface, where he has a hard time of it.
You see there is a sort of bladder which
forms in his Jaw and runs out some
times as far as foot or so. This blad-
der fills with air and floats the fish. and
keeps him from going down. So in
order to prevent that he picks out
sound stones on the sea bottoms and
swallows them. Sea elephants do the
same thing. and often. huge stones are
found in their stomachs. .
How is the cod caught?' the re-
porter asked.
They are caught on trollers.'
There is long line, a runner fisher-
men call it and at every fourteen or
eighteen feet a short line five
or six feet long is fastened. l used
TO have on my runners as many as
three hundred hooks baited. The line
would be baited on board ship, and
the whole 'snood' would be coiled up
into tub tapering toward the bottom
so as to give the line play. The coil
ing is very important, and you must
take great care with it so as not to
snarl the lines. For bait, dogfish,
whitefish and such like in chunks big
ger than your hand are hooked on.
The boats put off with the tub in the
bow, and when we'd get to a good
spot the man in the bow passes the
line all baited to the stern man, who
throws it overheard as fast as it is
paid out. 1t used to go out pretty
fast sometimes when the tide was run
ming strong, and many fellow has
got his fingers ripped open on the
hooks. The whole line would then be
anchored, and we'd wait until back
water came, which would be in five or
six hours, and then haul in.
THAT used to be hard work. The
fish would run small and large, and
we would hook on skates and dogfish
and whitefish and others besides the
cod. Once when we were pulling up
anchor we hauled in a big stone which
weighed three hundred pounds, and
was full of scallops and mussels and
long and round CLANS.
''When we got the catch back to one
smack we'd dress the fish and stow
them away in fine ice. We used to
work day and night sometimes, and
once. off Cape Sable, 1 slept only nine
hours out of five days and nights. A
shipload which averaged sixty pounds
to the fish used to be considered a
good one. Sometimes the average
would run as high as one hundred
pounds. The cod runs all the way
from fifteen to two and three hundred
pounds in weight. 1 once caught one
which weighed over three hundred
pounds. "-NeW HaUen NeaOS.