The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1911-06-23
Curiosities of the Fisheries

What is the matter with the mack
erel7 They have all but disappeared
and nobody has any idea of what has
become of them.
In 1885 our mackerel fishery fur
nished half a million barrels of salted
fish. Last year the catch was only
about twenty-seven hundred barrels.
What has become of this valuable food
animal? Certainly it has not been
wiped out by everlasting.
At the present time nearly two mil
lions OF dollars are invested in the
business of hunting for mackerel-an
industry prosecuted more in the way
of lottery than anything else, vessels
being fitted out every spring in the
hope that they will come back in their
former abundance. Sailed mackerel
are now worth forty dollars barrel.
If the great schools of earlier years
have sought feeding grounds elsewhere
how precious would be information Of
their whereabouts
Dr. Johan Hort, the Norwegian di-
rector of fisheries, says that the pro-
duction of marine fishes is subject to
such mighty influences as to be indie
pendent of the interference of man.
For illustration, in 1902 and 1908
there was an extraordinary scarcity Of
fishes of all kinds over the whole North
Sea and adjacent waters. Haddock al
most disappeared, and such cod as
were at hand presented most misera-
BILE and diseased appearance.
At the same time was presented the
unique spectacle Of a general migration
of large polar creatures from the Arctic
Ocean southwark. Arctic seals and
white whales came down as far as the
coast of Norway, and even to the Shet-
lands; and dead seabirds, much enact
ated, were washed ashore by thousands
along the northern shores of Europe.
Nobody knows what was the cause
of these strange phenomena, all OF
which seemed to be in some way con-
nected; but, two or three years later,
the cod, haddock and other fishes were
as numerous as ever. The activities
of man had nothing to do with reduc-
ing their numbers or with the restora-
ton Of the fnny population Every
year almost every square yard of the
bottom of the North Sea, which is the
most persistently used fishing ground
in the world, is scraped several times
by the huge dragnets known as beam
travis Yet there is no diminution
OF the tlsh supply.
Much influence has recently been
used to persuade congress and various
state legislatures to enact laws forbid
ding the use of beam travis in our own
Atlantic waters, on the ground that
they would soon wipe out all the fish.
This is a notion disproved by expert
ence in the seas OF northern Europe,
where such apparatus has long been in
use. The Fisheries Bureau, far from
believing the beam trawl objectionable,
is anxious that it shall be adopted by our
fishermen, because it would add enor-
mously to the fish supply of the coun-
try.
Extending from Cape Cod all the
way to Cape May is an area of ocean
bottom. covering several thousand
square miles, which is almost literally
paved with fishes OF very valuable
species, closely related to the celebra-
ted European sole and fully equal to
the latter as food. Its mouth is too
small for hook, however, and so not
single pound of this delicious food is
brought to our markets in a year. If
these fishes were sought with beam
travis they could be taken in practi-
cally unlimited numbers, not only to
the great profit of the fishermen but to
the substantial advantage of multitudes
of people who would gladly welcome a
new and cheap contribution TO their
diet.
Men admire in women the virtue Of