The record-union., 1894-06-23
THE OCEANS PASTURE
How the Great Fishes of the Seas
Get Food.
Menhaden one source-Animal Food
Takes the Place of Grasses on Land
How the Whale Takes in the Mol
lusks-The Predatory Members of
the Ffnny Tribe.

The sea has it's pasturage as has the
land, but the herbage of the animal, not
the vegetable kingdom; its areas are
shifting and variable, not fixed or station
sry. Shoreward over it's immense ex-
panses occasionally appear those marine
oases that vary in extent, character and
composition. Notable among them IS that
formed of various small molIusks and
crustacse of the polar regions, called by
whaIemen brit" or ''whalefeed," which
is vertible mass of floating fodder.
Backward and forward through its
densely eompacted fields rushes with
widely gaping jaws the great Arctic
whale, engulfng vast quantities.
Similar to this pabulum in use and ap-
parent purpose is the familiar menhaden
of our coast, Like the grasses of the far
rolling prairie they are three in number,
and like them they transmute the raw
material of the soil into fit and assimil-
able substance for the multitude of other
forms Of life; for the menhaden seeks the
bottom OF estuarles and adjacent waters,
where gather deposits of river salts, and,
gorging itself with the soft, clayey slime,
IL extracts therefrom the organic material
brought down from the uplands.
In all soil nou'rishing vegetation or
ganic matter is contained, which is
readily taken up by the roots of the grow
ing plant and diffused as the sap through
its substance. Its solubillty, however,
readily exposes it to drainage into water
courses, thereby finding its ultimate
passage, with grosser material, to the sea,
IN whose quiet waters it is deposited.
For the better assimilation Of this or
ganic deposit the menhaden's mouth is
furnished with hundreds OF hne bristles,
which enable 1t to strain It's food after the
manner Of the Arctic whale. a closure of
It's tOothiess Jaws forms a natural colan-
der, whereby the coarser are separated
from the finer particles, which latter only
are swallowed. InaSmuch as the larger
proportion of the catch of menhaden is
converted into fertilizing material, il
thus follows that they restore TO the land
a measure of its loss, the continuance OF
which infers the reversion OF the sub
stance Of the menhaden so utilized to
all submarine material, the ever-hungry,
the all-devouring sea.
ANIMAL LIFE RULES OCEAN DEPTHS.
Upon the land the plant is the domi-
nant, the animal the subsidiary form of
life. OF all which latter the former is. di-
rectly or indirectly, the support. The
vegetation of the ocean, however, is very
Limited in extent aud adaptation to the
HucAtGduCo VI us lulAl OCCUk kjdnbS, 1OI,
with perhaps the exception of the nearly
extinct manistee, there is hardly ma
rine creature whose subsistence is mainly
or directly derived therefrom.
In variety and extent the animal life of
the ocean is overwhelming in its i'm
mensity, and immeasurably beyond that
existing upon the land. In all its vary
ing depths, and in its every latitude, it
teams with animate creatures. In its
lower profound, where eternal darkness
reigns; in its shadows, in its middle
depths, in the regions Of eternal ice, and
beneath the equator's burning sun, its
waters swarm with the larger and the
lesser, the lower and the higher forms OF
marine lie. The land affords no measure
of comparison. 1t has its bare and sun
scorched deserts, its silent stretches of
barren ice and snow, but the sea has no
waste places; its every drop is possessed
of some measure of life. Only upon the
surface does the land support it's own, but
in the oceans remotest depths are found
strange creatures, with structures adapted
TO the enormous pressure they sustain.
The upper stages of this vast and varied
scale of being are mainly dependent upon
the lower, as upon the land the animal is
supported by the vegetable world. Chief
among the marine inStrumentalities of
life, or conyerters of raw material into
allmentary substance, are the mOlIuSca,
or shell tsh, but Of like contributing
character is the menhaden. The need,
therefore, of its existence in swarming
myriads is readily appreciated, and rem
ders creditable statements that otherwise
would seem TOO marvellous for belief. In
the opinion of competent authorities the
number of menhaden annually destroyed
by other fish along our coast exceeds IN
weight that of the entire human popula-
ton OF the globe, and yet the surviving
multitude is impressive in its yastness.
The menhRden renders subsistence to
every predatory fish that inhabits its wa
ters. Bonitos, doghsh, whiting, cod. bass,
and weakhSh feed abundantly upon him,
but do not work the ruthless slaughter OF
the bluehsb. Sharks and some species of
whales accomplish 8 terrible destruction,
as do also hahbut and porpoises. Sword
fish and bayonet-fish dart madly through
the schools, striking right and left with
their powerful weapons and feeding vora-
ciouslys The funny, or aIbicore, fish
sometimes attaining length OF twelve or
fifteen feet, rush with incredible swittness
through the swarms of helpless menha-
den, raging about like demons, scattering
them in every direction, and hinging
hundreds IN the air with their powerful
tails.
BLUEFISH, WOLF OF THE SEA.
But of all these dire enemies no single
species works the havoc OF the bluetish,
the wolf of the sea. Dashing into a terri
fed school. he snaps right and left, rend-
ing and tearing, sometimes chopping in
half and sometimes just shipping of
mere chip, but always destroying more
than he eats. His path is stream of
blood and fragmentary fish, and the con-
sequent smoothening of the sea by the
exuding oil from the familiar ''slicks" so
often observed upon the summer seas.
Such smooth areas remain often for weeks,
CHASTITY reminders of the carnage of this
relentless sea butcher, who is credited
with frequently disgorging what he eats
that he may the better continue his de-
vastation.
From the foregoing it becomes evident
that the menhaden is to be considered as
mere fodder; his mission is to be eaten;
he exists only for others. The mainte-
nance of his species in such extraordi-
nary, but, nevertheless, necessary abund-
snee, must therefore be due to exceptional
causes, and of such there are two. One
of these is the amplitude and certainty of
the menhaden's food, for that, not the
multitude of its enemies, is, as Darwin
we'll observes, the main factor of determln-
ing the abundance of a species.
The other cause arises from the unusual
opportunity of development afforded its
spawn by reason of the time and place OF
Its deposit. The mendaden ovary con-
talns 10000 eggs, and it has long been
recognized that larger proportion must
develop than is common with most fishes.
but until lately the locality and period OF
Its reproductive process remained mys-
terry, although it was believed that they
bred in the depths of the sea, where
propagation was more secure It seems,
however, as announced by the United
States Food Commissioner at the recent
convention, that they spawn late In the
fall IN bracklsh estuaries and creeks along
the entire coast line. This conclusion is
the result OF the researches of two Gov