The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-11-16
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A FISH STORY
By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN


key West has a floating gold
mine that passes as by every win
ter" This truth was uttered by
the late Fred Demeritt a year or
so before he died. Mr.. Demeritt
was perhaps the best posted man
on fish, and fish life and habits,
in Key West. He made a study
of everything pertaining to fish
ing and the fish industry, and was
an authority on this subject. q
In making this remark he had
reference to the millions and mil
I; lions Of kingfish and mackerel that
migrate right by our door every
year. He further stated that he
had frequently been out in his
boat when the waters were cover
ed for miles, or as far as the eye
could reach with a huge school Of
fish, and that the few our fisher
men caught were but a drop in the
bucket. Such is the case every
winter. Our fishermen could
catch them by the ton if there was
market for them, but few thou
sand pounds is their limit, and the
market is glutted, and they have
to sit in their boats and watch the
golden harvest float on by.
There is no reason in the world
why this should he. Mackerel are
canned by the million in other
places and they could be canned
here. uackerel are put up in
brine, pickeied and preserved in
cold storage in other places, the
same could be done here. We fire.
qGently go to our grocer and buy
pickeled maeSerel and send our
money away from home, when we
could just as easily bring money
in.
The writer has never heard of
canning kingfisi, but they certain
ly could be handled as any other
fish. Fried kingfish put up in cans
would certainly find ready mar
ket. Our stone crabs and eraw-
fish would make two of the high
est-priced delicacies put up in
cans that you could find. Key West
turtle soup, as prepared by the
Thompson soup factory, has been
selling for years, and we under
stand that he has never been able
to supply the demad for it.
We have only touched on two
or three of our fish that could be
caught when in season, put in cold
storage and held for a good mar
ket, and that could be canned,
piekeled or otherwise prepared for
a waiting demand. There is no
limit to the possibilities of a fish
canning plant in Key West. When
the salmon or tuna fish are run
ming in their native haunts, they
are handled as outlined above,
and millions of dollars are made
yearly by wide-awake and enter
prising firms that can see three
feet beyond their noses.
Pensacola is advertised as the
red snapper city. Did you know
that Pensacola sends her fisher
men to the snapper banks just off
Key West to get their snapper,
and carry it all the way back to put
it on the market. As stated in
former article, we are sleeping at
the switch. We need and must
have industries if we expect to re-
main a city. A year from now we
vii be facing starvation again if
we don't wake up. Uncle Sam is
not going to feed us always, so
let's get our Chamber of Commerce
going, and see what can be done
about interesting capital in the in
dustr:es suggested in this. article
and in former articles. Capital is
awaiting a chance for investment.
All we have to do is to bring the
people here and show them what
we have.
The writer has in a feeble way
tried to give you his ideas as to
what en- be done with the coconut
palm, the coeount Itself, and now