The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-12-30
(New York SUM-

stream sweeps northeastward from
Cape Hatteras until off Cape Cod it
is 100 miles from land. Here sometimes
fierce gales beat landward across 1t and
the great lunar tides struggle to defect
1t from its course but all the powers of
atmosphere and ocean and the influence
OF far-off planets are unable to affect
materially this mighty current or to
alter its northerly trend.
But the onslaught of the elements
has its effect on the little vOya gers in
the gulf stream. The seaweed which
casting loose from its tropical bed, has
thrown its lot in with the great ocean
river. is caught by the wind and tide
and finds itself thrown high and Cry on
the cold New England coast
More important economically and
scientifically are the fishes whose ma
tural habitat is the warm water of the
gulf and the Caribbean and which are
occasionally deluded into drifting with
the current so similar in temperature 10
their own home. They find themselves
after journey of hundreds of miles
responding in ,purposeless way to the
pressure of gales and cross currents,
with the result that they meet their
late in some of the hundreds OF fish
ermen's nets spread 20 reap the harvest
of the sea from Woods Hole to Block
| island
The fisherman looks at his novel
catch curiously and throws it aside,
seeing no marketable value in if. The
scientist seizes upon it eagerly and
bases thereon note Of a tropical spe-
| cies in strange waters
The combination of gulf stream,
cross currents and land contour includ-
ed in the expanse of sea from Nam
tucket and Woods Hole to Point Ju-
dith and Block island is held RESPONSE
! bic for the classification of probably
more different kinds of fishes there than
could be gathered anywhere else about
| the Atlantic coast north of the tropics
| This is why the United States govern
ment has established its marine station.
| This is why there are more fisher
mems traps along this stretch of coast
| than elsewhere-240 of them in Rhode
| Island voters alone. And this is why
even the laynan discovers much of IN
terest in the list of fishes found in
/ Rhode Island waters recently compiled
| by Henry c.. Tracy, A. NJ, OF Brown
university. the first complete list at
tempted OF fish fauna Of both Nara
gansett bay and the nearby ocean wa
| tiers.
In this list Mr.. Tracy has enumer-
!
and III species. of the latter of which
about thirty are important food fishes,
about sixty-fiVe are rare and about
| twenty-five have been taken but once.
/ In connection with The last statement
it is TO be noted that the type speci-
mems of six or seven specics-thOse
which have furnished the data for
standard scientific works on ichthypol
ogy-were taken in Rhode Island wa
| ters.
The trout and bass fisherman in his
efforts to promote protective leGisla-
ton and in his consideration of fish
cries questions is very likely to fancy
| that his are the most important of ell
| the problems having to do with fish.
| He will perhaps take a different view
of the matter after he has learned from
| Mr.. Tracy's list, which may be said 10
apply almost equally to Rhode Island
| Massachusetts and Connecticut, that OF
| the III species enumerated therein only
| fourteen are fresh water fish.
II is true that many of the ocean
fishes spawn in fresh water and a few
of them, the shad, herring ana alewife
for instance, are taken at such periods
but all of these are truly salt water va
rieties.
The shad is not commonly considered
| herring, but it is as representative nj
the group as it's cousin, the sea herring
clupea harengus, which, smoked, forms
d welcome table dish the year round, 81
the more common variety known va
riouslv as alewife, branch herring and
buckle, which ascends the Taunton
river in a continuous stream in late
March ard April
Another important member of this
group is the menhaden or porgy, which
because OF it's value i an oil producer
gives the American Fisheries company
a reason for maintaining its fleet Of
steamers. The menhaden is one of :
great many fishes which, despised today
for the table. may IN time assume {
greater economic value as food than 90
it's oil.
Those who have eaten it say it is o
excellent flavor and substance, although
troublesome because of the completely
of its skeleton structure. Today it il
more highly appreciated by the weak
fish and the bluefish than by mar
forming a considerable part of thei
diet during the months they are takeI
in northern waters.
The menhaden, unlike the fish
which prey upon 1t. is not carnivorous
its entire food supply being obtained by
altering out from the surface stratum
: of water the organic life there suspend
) ed. II is furnished with gill rakeT'
whose arrangements forms highly
effective filter of the water which thu
fish takes in by swimming actively il
circles with widely opened mouth anC
expanded gill covers. Menhaden ar
taken in travis operated from steam
! ers, immense hauls having been re
corded.
J Another member of the herring fam
ilv, one with which line fishermen ar
familiar, is the hickory shad, which at
tains a maximum length of twenty-fou
inches and is often caught by person
fishing with lines for weakfsh.
One connects the tarpon with Florld'
waters, but Mr.. Tracy finds that strag
glers are sometimes reported by fisher
. men and gives the habitat of this klnl
of game fishes as from Cape Cod Z
I Brazil. A near relation known as tn
ten-pounder and the big eyed herring
, is so rare that it is not usually recog
nized by northern fishermen Whel
caught north they may fairly be con
sidered fiotsam of the Gulf stream
: Flying fishes are not exceedingly rar
in New England waters. In the museum
of the Academy of Natural Sciences
philadelphia is one of the variety mos
E commonly seen in the East and Yves