Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-24
STRANGE ATLANTIC FISH
Aquatic Specimens That We're Thought to
Be Extinct
They Are Again Making Their APP
pearance in Large Numbers on
the Massachusetts Coast.
From the Boston Transcript.

from the Boston Transcript
Nearly twenty-one years ago, in May,
1879. Capt. Kirby Of Gloucester, Mass, in
command of the schooner William ".
Hutchins, was almost directly south Of
Nantucket seeking hake and cod. when his
crew commenced to take great numbers Of
"a strange and handsomely colored fish,"
With the conservatism that marks fisher
men, most Of these strangers were thrown
overheard, but Capt Kirby kept a few and
cooked them for his own table. He found it
one of the finest fishes he had ever eaten,
and determined to keep all that were taken
thereafter. when the schooner came in
at Gloucester it brought some 1900 pounds
of the new fish. Messrs Friend & Son
bought the lot and disposed of their pur-
chase In various ways. Capt. Kirby sent
one of the fish to the National Museum,
where DR.. G. Brown Goode and DR.. Tarle-
ton H. Bean examined it and pronounced it
tile fish, but a new genus and species.
The fine appearance of the new fish, its de-
licious taste and bountiful abundance
seemed to promise a valuable addition to
our food products, and Professor Baird.
then United States commissioner of fish and
fisheries, was much interested in this new
factor in the resources of the sea.
In 1880 the fish commission steamer Fish
Hawk was completed, and the scientific eX-
ploration of the bottom life off our coasts
was begun with facilities unattainable be-
gradually until the water was about 100
fathoms deep, and then declined very sud
/ denly. To use Professor VerrillS words,
the slope beyond the 10O-fathom line Is
usually as steep as the side of great
mountain chain and about as high as Mt.
Washington" Off the southern coast of
Massachusetts this slope is very near the
gulf stream. and it has fauna unsurpassed
in the world in scientific interest. The gulf
stream brings stragglers from the tropics
and the cold Arctic currents bring beings
whose normal habitat lies in the polar re-
gion, and the result is a naturalists para
disc, The tile fishes belong in warm water,
and the gulf stream was no doubt respon-
sible for their being SO far north
For three years the the fish was source
of wealth to the fishermen. and then 81.
den catastrophe befell the industry. the
exact nature of which may never be known.
During March and April 1852, vessels en-
tering New York and other Atlantic ports
reported passing great numbers OF dead
fish on the northern edge of the gulf
stream. They proved to be tile fish, and
investigation showed that they covered an
area 10 miles long and twenty-three miles
wide. The fish commission chartered the
schooner Josie Reeves for an investigating
tour, but the vessel returned without hay-
ing taken a single specimen. This unprece-
denied destruction of animal life attracted
wide attention among the newspapers and
scientific journals and from the data col
lected Captain ]. W. Collins of the fish
commission estimated the number of dead
fish at ], 43S, 10000, a number that would
be sufficient to give every man, woman and
child in the country 2SS pounds of fish, al
lowing ten pounds to each fish. Prof. YER
rill attributed this destruction to a very
severe storm that prevailed at that time
and probably drove the icy cold water near
shore into the area usually covered by the
warm water of the outer margin of the
gulf stream. Not single individual seemed
to have escaped, and the tile fish was placed
Professionally in the list of extinct animals.
On February 8 1897, the 7S-ton schooner
Mabel Remission was overtaken by a gale
while on Georges Bank. and was blown
about 40 miles to the westward. The ex-
act position Is not known, but it was about
40 miles southwest of Norman STAND,
when haddock travis were let down in
sixty-f1ve fathoms Of water. When these
were brought in. thirty tile fish, weighing
from five to fifteen pounds each, were taken
and were landed in Gloucester a few days
later.
In 1898 the fish were taken in consider
able numbers. and in 1899 they were almost
as abundant ever many young SDeci-
mems being found. This latter point is i'm
pcrtant, as indicating that the fish are
breeding on their old ground and are not
mere stragglers.
The determination and establishment of
the tile fish is of more than scientific inter-
est The fisheries are source of great
wealth to our country and everything that
can throw light on them should be well
coined. The mysterious destruction of these
fish points to a line of investigation that
should be encouraged, in the hope that such
catastrophes may be averted in the future.