The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1949-10-14

ROOAl0Os fAliC NdAoG vi tAAAo
is not presently available but
come clear idea of its value can
be reached when il is realized
that the zoe, 100000 pound Men
haden catch of an earlier recent
year was worth Sill 900, 900. Men
haden production in the Gulf of
Mexico contributes heavily to
this volume. The last catch sta
tistics for the Gulf of Mexico COW
cred the year l945 and totaled
81, sos, 700 pounds. Unofficial sta
tistics indicate that two Gulf of
Mexico Menhaden reduction
plants alone, one in Mississippi
and n in Louisiana, produced
in a single year 143, 000, 900
pounds, approximately two and
one-third times the total Gulf of
Mexico production figures Off
cially reported for l945.
QUESTION No. 5 - Whether
Menhaden fishing operations in
the Mississippi Sound using purse
seines from April LIST 10 Novem.
Der 3oth will be injurious to the
propagation of Shrimp or fish.
Menhaden fishing operations in
the Mississippi Sound using stad-
ard purse seines from April LIST
to November 30th would not, in
my opinion, cause any injury to
the propagation of commercial
Shrimp or of other commercial
fish and Of game fish and Oys-
tiers. Young stages of such fish
which might have taken shelter
in the inshore nursery grounds
could not be captured by the
purse seine gear since such fish
are much too small and since,
further. the Menhaden operation
of the Menhaden gear would not,
in any event, disturb the actual
vegetation that forms such shell
ter. The question of the confusion
that has arisen because of the
presence of small Shrimp on
Menhaden nets las also the pres
ence on Shrimp TRAVELLING nets)
has been explained above. 1t may
merely be emphasized again at
this point that these small Shrimp
r not the young of the COM
mercial Shrimp at all but are ac-
tually full grown, sexually ma
ture Shrimp of the kind known
as Acetes. It should be empha-
sized again that Acetes is of no
commercial or other value and
that it can readily be identified
upon close examination by tn G
. presence during the breeding sea-
son of attached eggs, whereas in
contrast, the commercial Shrimp
do not carry their eggs but cast
. them adrift in the ocean.
QUESTION No. 6 - Whether
the catching of Menhaden in the
Mississippi Sound by use of purse
seines would likely reduce tn e
supply Of food of other fish to
the extent that il may reduce the
number Of game and food fish in
these waters.
The answer to this question is
that there is no evidence what
ever to indicate that any reduc-
ton of the food supply of game
fish and of other commercial fish
results from seine fishery. This
is clearly indicated by, for exam
Pile, the recent observations of
Robinson (see photography on
the Texas Coast, where his exam
ination of two thousand nine hun
dred and seventeen game, COM
mercial and other fish revealed
the presence of only sever Men
baden. Of one thousand and for
ty-four Speekled Trout, only two
had eaten M~enhaden, of three
hundred and ninety Reddish, none
had eaten Menhaden, of one hun
dred and seventy-three Mackerel,
none contained Menhaden and OF
sixteen Tarpon, none contained
Menhaden.
Earlier studies by Pearson and
Gunter -(see photography, also
on the Texas Coast, covered six
hundred stomachs of Speckled
Trout and Reddish taken over a
period of two years and revealed
less than two dozen Menhaden
present as food. There is no rea-
son whatever to believe that the
conditions in the Mississippi
Sound regarding these relations
between game fish, other COM
mercial fish and Menhaden diff
fer in any way whatever from the
conditions in Texas.