The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1949-09-23
Menhuden -. Facts and FdIldeies

EDITORS NOTE: This is the
second in a series of four excerpts
from a booklet recently released
by the Mississippi seafood com
mission entitled "Menhaden -
Facts and Fallacies." The text is
a report to Naif Jordan, commits
sion president, by DR.. James N.
Gowanloch, chief biologist for the
Louisiana conservation depart
ment. DIR. Gowanloch absolves
the "Pogie" industry of many OF
the charges made against it by
sport fishermen and other COM
mercial fishers. Because of its inn
portance to Jackson county. the
Chronicle Star and Advertiser is
reprinting it at lengthy
BY DR.. James N. Gowsnloch
The purse seine is essentially
a net held up by floats and held
down by leads forming a vertical
wall which when the Menhaden
school is sighted is set so that
it forms the circumference of a
circle in which is enclosed the
school of Menhaden. When tn e
school is enclosed, a special
weight is tripped, as the result
of which the whole purse seine
closes in at the bottom forming
a blunt" in which the Menhaden
are captured.
The only way that a purse seine
can be operated effectively is
that two conditions be met.
First, the lower border of the
purse seine must clear the ground
and at no time come in contact
with either the actual water bot
tom or any growth of bottom
plants. After such a contact is
made, the operation of the purse
seine becomes completely inter
ferred with and, in any case,
where the seine would be dragged
over the bottom, the seine would
be so badly damaged that the OPP
orator would lose money even il
his Menhaden catches were
abundant. It may be useful to re-
describe the whole mechanism
whereby the purse seine operates,
Essentially. the purse seine is d
bag net. It does not start in the
form of a bag, but starts in the
form of a vertical ring like wall,
the bottom edge of which must
not touch either the ground or
any other obstructing object.
AS has already been stated,
Menhaden have the peculiar
characteristic of schooling only
with Menhaden. They do not
travel in mixed groups of game
fish and other commercial fish.
Also, as has been indicated, they
do not provide in any except a
completely negligible degree food
for either game fish or other COM
mercial fish.
Furthermore, any game fish
that happen to be in the viciniwV
of a school of Menhaden have, as
repeated observations have
proven, the instant reaction of
sounding"
When the surfacing school of
Menhaden is sighted, the vertical
ring of the purse seine is set and
as soon as this ring has been
closed by the seine boats, the
tomweight is dropped whereby
instantly the lower wall edge OF
this ring like wall is drawn to-
gether so that all of the fish above
the lower wall are trapped. II
at any time the movement of
this lower edge is interferred
with, the effective operation OF
the purse seine fails.
Once the purse" is accom-
plished by the drawing in of the
lower c"drawstring'') line. it will
be four that the net contains
nothing but Menhaden. The rest
of the fishing operation simply
consists in brailing out these Men
haden by means of manually OBJ
Grated or power operated dip
nets or their equivalent. There
after, the operation of complet-
ing the purse seine haul does in
no way interfere with either the
character of the bottom or with
the game fish or other CONNER
cial fish present.
A further pertinent instance is
that MIR. Clarence Frazier, oper-
ating at Grand Isle. purchased
Menhaden purse SEEMING gear for
the purpose of catching Spanish
Mackerel and completely failed
in his enterprise. This unsuccess-
full attempt to catch a game fish
by means of the purse seine re-
suited in the loss of $4,000 by Mr..
Frazier when it was tried four
years ago.