Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-05
GOVERNMENT TAGS
FISH TO DISCOVER
MIGRATORY HABITS
BY FREDERIC j. HASKIN

|
great scientific interest to natural
lists and of practical commercial
to fishermen is a new investigation
which has just been undertaken by
| the bureau of fisheries of the de-
partment of commerce. 1t is the tag
ging of fish for the purpose of
| identifying them later and in other
| places and thereby determining their
migratory habits. Some experiment
! tai work has been done in this di-
rection in the past but the bureau
now is undertaking the work on a
| large scale.
Henry O'Mally, commissioner of
fisheries, has decided to begin the
experiment with the cod, the pol
| lock and the haddock of the New
England banks. These are among
the most important food fish pro-
duced in American waters and the
! results of the investigation are eX-
pected to be of the utmost value to
the fishing fleets.
| Old fishermen, born and raised on
the New England coast, and whose
| fathers before them have followed
| the trade of deep sea fishing for
generations, know all there is to
learn by acutual experience concern
! ing the habits of the North Atlantic
fish, but it is believed that the
scientific work of the bureau will
add to the lore of the fishing banks
| by employment of modern methods
That the fishermen are not scorn-
full of science is inc1cated by the
fact that the Master Mariners as
ISOLATION of Gloucester, Massachu
sets, has expressed the liVliest in
| terest in the work and it is giving
the bureau unanimous support. The
experienced fisherman is inclined to
rely more on his weather eye and
his water lore, to say nothing of the
proverbial fisherman's luck, than
on science, but in this case the IA
! cilities of Uncle Sans chief fisher
man are not scorned because facts
about the New England fish mean
bread and butter to the Glouches-
! ter fleets.
Glouchester is the principal New
| England fishing port, although 9th
err towns on he coast of New Eng
! land also send out their fleets each
season. The traditional arrangement
I is for the master and men who man
fishing schooner to have shares
in the enterprise. No regular wages
are paid the men but all work hard
and when the catch is sold, all the
men share. For this reason, it is of
very great Importance to them to
know all there is to know about the
habits of the deep-sea fish they
seek.
The bureau of fisheries maintains
hatcheries at Woods Hole and
GlCuchester, Massachusetts,, and at
Boothbay Harbor in Maine. Ten
thousand fish of the cod, pollock
and haddock species are to be tagged
with little metal tags which will not
readily come off the fish nor inter-
fere with it's movements and growth.
Posters are being placed at the
great fish markets along the coast
announcing the work and reward
of 25 cents will be paid by the gov
eminent for each of the little tags
returned with the information con-
corning where and when the tagged
fish was caught.
How to Identify Fish
To assist the study, the bureau
has worked out an Identification
system for fish which might be COM
pared to the Bertillon finger print
system. 1t has been discovered that
the scales of a fish show, under
microscopic Inspection, characteris-
tic markings which reveal the life,
| growth ana age of the fish. When
, tagged fishes are caught, the fish
erman or dealer who finds the tag
is urged by the bureau 10 scrape
off few scales and send them along
with the tag. From a scientific eX.
animation of these scales, experts OF
the bureau can learn many things
concerning the story of the fish.
The bureau has fitted up special
steamer to sail on a fish tagging
cruise. The bureaus steamer Hal
cyon has been outfitted with special
tackle and on April 6 it sailed on
one of the most curious fishing eX-
petitions ever undertaken, a fish
ing trip, the purpose of which is tC
catch fish only to throw them back
into the water. qhe first cruise was
in the waters of Nantucket Shoals.
The experts of the bureau in charge
of the work were DIR. H. 3. BigelOW
of Harvard university; Willis H.
Rich, assistant in charge of the di-
vision of scientific inquiry of the
fisheries bureau and William c..
Schroeder, scientific assistant of the
bureau. DR.. Bigelow is an expert on
New England fish and Mr.. Rich has
had considerable experience in tag
ging salmon on the Pacific coast
and in Alaska.
The fish will be caught in nets and
the three varieties which the gov
eminent is investigating will be
segregated, tagged and thrown back
into the water. In all probability
some of the tagged fish may be
caught the next days by some fish
erman but it is equally likely that
some may remain at liberty for
years. Some very likely will be
caught within a few miles of the
place where they were tagged and
some, doubtless. a thousand miles
away. These are precisely the facts
the bureau desires to determine.
It is known that the great schools
of fish migrate from time to time
between the coast line and the fish