The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-15
SALT WATER FISHES IN THE
 WINTER.
An Important Discovery in Coast
 Fishing.


 is reason to believe that there will be far-reaching results obtained in the future through improved methods of deep-sea seining. In the two winter months of January and February all of our littoral species of fish disappear almost entirely from the waters off our coast and fishermen are compelled to fold up their seines and wait until spring for the reappearance of their favorite game. A very few daring and adventurous spirits go far out to sea with long lines and succeed in catch ing few each day to supply the mar kets; but as rule the catches have been comparatively small and insig nificant.
 Scientists have concluded that the fishes go to some unknown region or | depths of the ocean to breed during these two cold months, and upon their return in the spring they are accom- | panied by innumerable hosts of young | fry. The discovery offshore here is nothing less than that of a winter nur- sery of our littoral species of fish. From six to eight fathoms below the surface of the water the fish have l been found to be literally swarning l in countless numbers, and hooks and seines let down to that depth invari- ably bring up rich hauls. No amount ! of coaxing and temptation con induce the fish to leave their warm winter 1 habitat for below the surface, and the fishermen have to adopt new methods of catching them
 The discovery is important in modi- flying our prevailing methods of catch ing marketable food fish and in cheap ing the supply in winter and in furn- ishing the needy workers with em- ployment at an off season when pow erty and hardship often press most severely upon them. Naturalists have believed for some time that most of our sea-food fishes migrated to warmer climates in winter, as our birds do, and returned in the spring; but now 1t seems that they merely swim offshore some distance and drop down into deep corrugations, and re- main happy and contented until spring returns.
 The fish are found off Beaufort and Morehead City in deep holes or corru- gations. In the summer time they come in shore further, and swarm around the oyster beds and the bays and in1ets A great variety of food fish is found in this winter nursery such as the red drum gray trout ol weakfish, spotted sea trout, bluefish cronkers and many others. Last win ter the fishermen, with deep-sea lines . managed to make big hauls over these : winter pasture fields. They let dowr , lines from 5 to 10 fathoms and brought ) up big game. But this was soon con. sidered too slow work, and specia deep-sea nets were manufactured fol the purpose. These nets were heavily weighted, and when sunk to the prop CT depth they brought up enormou:
 hauls of fish
 This winter the fishing has been bet ter than ever. Improvements hay, been made upon the nets, and the fish
 ermen have been scoring wonderful
 successes. In the first five days o
 February 153,000 pounds of trou
 and 125000 cronkers were caught il this manner about 1-2 miles off shor
 from Fort Macon, near the sea buoy
 where the depth averages six fathoms : The fishing has been SO good in place that the men have made as high a : $70 each in one day. Men all aloni
 shore out of employment, are fockinl
 to the place to take part in the fish
 ing. A man provided with a deep-se;
 line and hooks, who is willing to en dure the hardships, can make goo
 living in this way. But it is no eas
 work to operate a line six to eigh
 fathoms in length, with several pound
 of lead and five-pound fish on tn
 other end. Some of the line fisherme
 come in at night with boat load o
 fish, but their hands are so cut an ! mutilated that they are unfit for wor
 for the next day. Thick buckski t gloves on the hands are necessary fo |. the proper protection of the skin. A The fact being established that tn
 fish merely sink to a good depth ot
 our coast in winter instead of migrat
 ing to some tropical sea, the questio
 of discovering the hiding place c
 other species becomes interesting - is thought that the same sort of fish = ing may be applied to the codfish o
 the Newfoundland banks, and to tn
 red snappers off the Florida coast
 the winter habitat of these fishes - not too deep, they may be caught righ l, through the cold weather with proper d ly constructed seines. It is believe now that countless millions of shat
 salmon, herring, striped bass and otf ,- CT anadromous fish are hidden ava
 in the fields of the ocean short dis c tance off our coast, and that only h small per cent. of them enter our riy
 CTS to spawn in a given season. l 1t fact, if one-hundredth of all that ar I in the ocean should make a simultan I eous movement in this direction, the a would completely choke up every riy
 CT in the country. Hence it is quit s important that their winter hidin
 place should be discovered. In the net