The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-23


 ton. upon the invitation of the Ameri- con Fisheries Society. and 1t mas brought together most of the leading fish culturists of the world. It has been estimated that there is enough food in the waters of the world to sup port the entire human race, but were it not for the timely interposition or the fish culturists many of the great food fishes would ere this have al- most disappeared, because without art ificial propagation the demand must have overreached the supply.
 Fish culture aims to create enough interest so that we will not have to touch the principal. It seeks to have the annual crop of fish large enough so that the years catch will leave enough seed to bring forth an equiVa- lent crop the succeeding year II to consider ways and means for attain ing this end more completely than has heretofore been possible that the flsh- cries Congress has convened.
 The United States government has recognized the Congress by the ap- propriation of money to defray the ex- penses of the meeting. and the new ideas of fish culture which will be brought from the ends of the earths Twill give an impetus to the science:- although the whole world comedies that the United States is far ahead or every phase of the fishing industry. Millions of dollars are lost every year because of the waste of fisheries. Mii- lions more are lost annually by defect i've methods sf handling. preparins' and preserving the catch. The con gress will try to solve these problems Wealth in fabulous amounts could pc added to Uncle Sam's already large noid5i be widely disseminated. So the question of the establishment of fishery schools will be considered. All of the papers and informal discussions of the Con gress will be published, thus bringing together into one volume all the best and newest ideas of the world on hsh hculture-
 Perhaps one of the most interesting things of the Congress will be com petition for prizes for the best meth ods of observing the habits and re- cording the life history of fish. Much as the fish culturist knows about nsnes 1t is next to nothing as compared with what he does not know. He knows that the salmon come Into fresh water to spawn and then die. But the young salmon go out to sea and are lost TOT long time. Where they go no man knows, for they have never been sight ed at sea except when they are headed for the shore. The shad-a member or the herring family-goes to sea arter spawning and Is seldom seen close to shore. The cod fish come back the year after they first put in their ap- pearance, but after that they are seen no more Where do they go? what oo they eat? Do they call fresh water their home and sport idly about in the boundless ocean? There are hundred mysteries about fish life into which the fish scientist would like to nave peep. How are they to get at itT That is the question the Congress IS to answer.
 The Bunaau of Fisheries did make
 an experiment with cod in an attempt
 to solve the mystery. They tagged
 4,000 cod a few years ago ana au-
 yertised the fact wideAy, with the re-
 ouest that whosoever came acrp.s one
 of these tagged fish should advise the
 bureau. giving the da :e of the catco.
 the location. the weight and condition
 of the fish and other information. The
 newspat CTS made feature Of the sto-
 ry. and soon the whole fishing world
 was on the lookout for tagged coi. Some were caught and the catch
 promptly reported. Some who caught them turned them loose again. In one dnstance the tag passed through dozen hands from the catcher to the consumer without discovery, and was
 returned to the bureau by the latter.
 Not more than four per cent. of the
 tags were ever heard from and no
 tagged fish ever showed up later than
 the first year after 1t was liberated.
 They drifted widely. Some whtcn were
 liberated on the same day and at the
 same place were caught hundreds of miles apart One fish was foanl thsr- ty-three miles on a bee line from the point at which 1t was released. Cn,y two days after it was set free. While some wandered widely apart, others kept closely together.
 In the utilization of the vase pro- ducts of fisheries 1t is proo%ole that the making of leather from fish skins will be a more general custom io the future than 1t has been in tho past. Porpoise hide is said to be the finest of all feathers for shoes. one pair made from 1t out-lasting three of salfskin
 or kid. The leather is worth from ihree
 to four dollars a pound. but one pound
 is enough to make three pairs of shoes. Some few frog skins are tanned. though not in quantities to make thsm of commercial importance.
 The number of fish that swi4n the seas is beyond estimate. Evsu the
 number of species Is so great IS to be well nigh unbelievable. Tn the wat CTS of the Atlantic Ocean, from Green land to Panama alone, there are over $500 different kinds of fsa. The law of selection Is nowhere 10 strongly in evidence as in marine life. The sole. | accustomed to laying on It's side. has developed both eyes on one side of the head. The great class of sea | squirts have eyes In their younger l days, but when they reach the adult state and thereafter remain immovable | these eyes disappear. The tail also | disappears as soon as they quit travel | ling.
 Some marine creatures have a rath-
 CT precarious existence. The lug worm gets its sustenance by eating sand. and | inasmuch as there is not much nourish-
 ment in this kind of food it has to eat l lols of it. As many as s2,000 casts O. sand lug worms has been found on
 ! single acre ); grouEd-equivalent to Z.OVO tons.
 The law of natural selection shows | up forcibly in the fertility of fishes. The ones which are exposed to the
 most dangers are the most prolific,
 and the ones which meet with the few
 est perils are the least prolific For ! instance. 1t is estimated that but one shad out of a hundre dever survives to lend itself to the perpetuation of
 the species. hence a female shad may
 lay million eggs during her life. On the other hand. cannibal fishes and turtles. which encounter but few dan gers lay but a small number of eggs. one or the worst enemies of the food hsh of the Atlantic coast Is the dog
 fish These marine pirates travel in
 vast schools and eat wholesome fish
 by the millions. All sorts of methods
 have been recommeded for checking
 their ravages. Some one wrote to the Canadian government advising that n
 successful way would be to fasten lit- tIe bells and bright ColOred bunting