r'j.te: s1) 3 1604 012 891 380 ft ft' SHELLF OF THE South Atl; and Gulf C united sta' departme: OFFICE OF T . \ " . : OF FISHERI 1 **#*%< tfhflpL CONSERVATK BULLETIN UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Harold L. Ickes, Secretary OFFICE OF THE COORDINATOR OF FISHERIES Ira N. Gabrielson, Deputy Coordinator UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE - WASHINGTON • 1944 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. — Price 10 cents CONTENTS page Introduction 3 The fisheries 4 The fishing grounds =. 6 The South Atlantic coast 6 TheGulfcoast 7 Boats, men, and fishing gear 8 Marketing the catch 8 Biographies of the fish and shellfish of the region 9 Mullet 9 Spanish mackerel 12 Kingfish L3 Bluefish 14 Red snapper 1G Groupers 17 Sea trouts 19 Redfish , 21 Black drum 22 Shrimp 24 The oyster 20 The blue crab 28 Other fish and shellfish 31 Menhaden 31 Shad 32 Pompano 33 Snook 34 Grunts 35 Sheepshead 35 Blue runner 37 Crevalle_ 37 Flounders 38 Sharks 39 Spiny lobster 41 Hard-shell clam 41 Bay scallop 42 Appendix 43 The nutritive value of fish and shellfish ' 43 General guides for selecting and preparing fish 43 Bibliography 45 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/fishshellfishofsOOcars Fish and Shellfish of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts By Rachel L. Carson, Aquatic Biologist Office of the Coordinator of Fisheries EVER SINCE the first settlements were made in the region, the waters bordering the southern Atlantic coast and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico have furnished food. Shrimp, oysters, crabs, and shorefish, abundant in the warm southern bays and sounds, insured the early colonists against starvation and later formed an article of trade with settlements removed from the coast, upriver and in the foothills of the mountains. Little by little the fisheries of the region developed, and now the South supplies the United States with practically all of its shrimp, a third of its crabs, a fourth of its oysters, and a number of choice fishes that are not taken anywhere else in abundance, like the red snapper, the Spanish mackerel, and the pompano. Although mature in years, the fisheries of the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts have by no means completed their development. With a coastline more than 2,500 miles long as the crow flies, the region produces only a little more than half a billion pounds of fishery products — 14 per- cent of the total yield of the fisheries of the United States and Alaska. With a bewildering variety of life in its waters — more kinds of fish and shellfish than are found anywhere else in the country — the region has developed only five major fisheries: the menhaden, shrimp, mullet, crab, and oyster industries. Of all other species available, none are caught in quantities exceeding 10,000,000 pounds. Part of this slow development has resulted from our lack of knowledge, both of the fishing grounds and of the fish. There has been little scien- tific exploration of the region, and the fishermen have confined their operations almost entirely to the waters close inshore. We do not know, with few exceptions, the areas where fish may congregate offshore, or whether such areas exist. We know very little of the life histories of some of the most important species of the region, so that we can only guess how large a fishery they might support. Some of the species which we know to be abundant cannot now be fully utilized because of the limitations of the present methods of handling the catch. The southern fisheries are a fertile field for exploration which will reveal whether they may in time yield an even larger and more valuable seafood harvest. CONSERVATION BULLETIN 37 THE FISHERIES Cape Hatteras is the Mason and Dixon Line of the marine world. North of it lie the waters inhabited by the cold-water fishes of the northern ocean, species like the sea herring, the common mackerel, cod, silver hake, and pollock. South of the Cape the truly southern fauna begins. Spanish mackerel and kingfish, mullet, bluefish, spotted sea trout, red snapper, groupers — these are a few of the many species that belong to the warm waters of the South and are caught in important quantities nowhere else. To be sure, many of them make occasional or Table 1. — Fish and shellfish landed in the South Atlantic and Gulf states in 19Jfi in quantities exceeding 100,000 pounds.1 Pounds Value to fishermen FISH Alewives or river herring Bluefish Blue runner Carp Catfish and bullhead Crappie Crevalle Croaker Drum: Black Red or redfish Flounders Groupers Harvestfish Hickory shad Jewfish King mackerel King whiting Menhaden Mojarra Mullet Muttonfish Pinfish Pompano Sea bass Sea catfish Shad Sharks Sheepshead (salt-water) Snappers: Mangrove Red Snook or sergeantfish Spanish mackerel Spot Squeteagues or sea trout: Gray Spotted White Striped bass Sunfish Tenpounder White perch Yellowtail SHELLFISH Crabs: Hard Soft and peelers Shrimp Spiny lobster Clams, hard Oysters, market: Public, spring Public, fall Private, spring Private, fall Scallops, bay Turtles, soft-shell 3 1 250 37 ,115,900 ,438,400 780 , 700 438 , 000 ,486,200 741,900 238,700 ,421,400 857,900 ,594,800 ,064,900 , 184 . 000 434 , 500 371,500 138,300 ,478,000 ,426,600 ,076,800 394,900 ,078,100 404,000 130,100 562 , 900 420 , 800 377 , 500 ,344,400 ,260,000 628,900 204.900 ,523,800 470,000 450,900 ,448,500 630,500 ,311,900 217,800 539,900 , 104 , 800 227,100 108,200 59,800 33,321,100 543 , 700 150,540,600 463 , 500 1,240,900 12,742,100 2,367,400 3,391,900 2,449,300 162,200 146,600 $110,896 178.166 11,883 19,662 199,717 23,857 3 , 385 89,634 37,945 98,045 83 , 555 206,067 12,735 12,842 4,381 155,860 41,721 823 , 202 6,688 L, 378, 161 23 , 098 2,586 137,321 19,660 7,056 189,529 25,200 19,415 9,359 577,341 24,519 320,746 85,989 181,745 512,207 8,801 59,389 63,144 5,052 3,795 5,338 528,497 83,311 ,893,360 31,501 112,638 744,152 185,372 195,552 137,674 21,182 2,204 Source : Fishery Statistics of the United States, 1940. Statistical Digest 4, Fish and Wildlife Servic; FISH AND SHELLFISH 0 even regular excursions into the northern area, but they reach their full tide of abundance only along southern shores. .Because it lies a third above and two thirds below Cape Hatteras, North Carolina has a fish fauna of mixed northern and southern forms. Some of the fish taken in large quantity in its waters — such as the croaker, spot, alewives, and gray sea trout — also are found in great numbers in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Middle Atlantic coast. These species are not described in the present bulletin because they are not abundant elsewhere in the South and their description is being reserved for a future publication on the fishes of the Middle Atlantic coast and the Chesapeake Bay. In 1940, a year fairly representative of pre-war conditions, commercial fishermen of the States from North Carolina to Texas brought in a total of 573,533,000 pounds. An enormous variety of edible fish and shellfish were represented in that catch, in all more than 85 different kinds. But the diversity of the seafood produced by the southern fisheries is more apparent than real. Ninety percent of the entire catch consists of five species of aquatic life, while the remaining 10 percent is made up of 75 species caught in quantities ranging from moderate down to small or insignificant. The menhaden alone, a silvery member of the herring family which schools in enormous numbers at the surface, comprises nearly half the catch of all species for the entire region. Shrimp con- tributes another quarter. Mullets, crabs, and oysters make up 3 to 6 percent each. (Detailed statistics of the catch are given in table 1.) As might be expected, the eight southern coastal States differ a great deal in the productivity of their fisheries. Florida, with its long coast- line, has a larger catch than any other State in the group, contributing about one-third of the total yield. North Carolina is a close second, with 30 percent of the total, and Louisiana is third, with 22 percent. Mississippi furnishes 7 percent, Texas 4, and Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina 1 to 2 percent each. (See table 2 for poundages.) Not only are Florida's fisheries the most productive, they are also the most varied, drawing on 67 species — 52 fish and 15 shellfish. This is exclusive of a number of fishes like the tarpon, bonefish, and others taken only by sport fishermen. North Carolina, with 43 commercial species, comes next, while Mississippi, drawing on only 17 species, has the least diversified fisheries (table 2). Table 2. — Miscellaneous information on the fisheries of the South Atlantic and Gulf States.1 State Num- ber of species in com- mercial catch Total landings (in pounds) Value of catch to fishermen Num- berof fisher- men Num- ber of ves- sels 2 Largest fishery of State Most valuable fishery of State North Carolina South Carolina 43 21 19 67 26 17 24 22 170,581,000 9,445,900 12,671,700 187,492,200 11,344,300 38,002,300 126,626,800 19,369,200 $1,864,164 265 , 828 380 , 630 5,004,612 561,911 623,110 4,951,493 992,697 7,113 1,341 1,178 8,902 1,134 1,877 4,858 1,538 184 35 77 203 41 248 288 69 Menhaden Crab Shrimp Menhaden Shrimp Menhaden Shrimp Shrimp Menhaden Oysters Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Mississippi Texas.. Total .. 575 , 533 , 400 14,644,895 27,941 1,145 1 Based on statistics for 1940. 2 Exclusive of motor boats, row boats, and other small craft. 5 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 The menhaden industry of the South is centered in North Carolina, which produces slightly more than half the total yield of the area. Louisiana is the shellfish capital of the region, with the southern fisheries for shrimp, crabs, and oysters all most highly developed in that State. Florida, however, is the headquarters of a most imposing array of im- portant fisheries: those for mullet, red snapper, Spanish mackerel, king- fish, bluefish, sharks, grouper, and redfish, as well as the smaller fisheries for spiny lobster, pompano, sheepshead, blue runner, jacks, and clams. THE FISHING GROUNDS It is 900 miles from Cape Hatteras to the Florida Keys, and it is 1600 miles from the Keys around the Gulf to the mouth of the Rio Grande. That is a total of 2,500 miles of coastline, measured directly and without following all the small irregularities, the numerous islands, the sounds and bays and marshes that make the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts the shore fisherman's paradise. Unlike the New England fishermen, who take most of their catch on grounds lying far offshore and perhaps hundreds of miles from the home port, the fishermen of the South do the greater part of their fishing in a narrow band of water only a few miles wide bordering the coast on its ocean side, and in the thou- sands of square miles of protected bays and sounds that are so char- acteristic of the southern coast. South Atlantic coast The eastern boundary of North Carolina is a chain of narrow islands that form a barrier protecting the coast from the pounding of the Atlantic breakers. Between the islands, locally called "banks," and the coast lie a series of sounds — Currituck, Albemarle, Pamlico, Core, and Bogue — some 3,000 square miles of fishing waters connected with the outside by several inlets. Shad, striped bass, and river herring pass through these sounds at spawning time, and sea trout, mullet, croakers, crabs, and oysters abound in them. On the ocean shore, off the banks, there is good fishing for other species. Famous bluefish grounds lie between Cape Henry and Cape Lookout. Every fall the spawning runs of mullet pass in enormous schools along the outer and inner shores of the banks. Some of the best menhaden grounds are in the waters off Cape Lookout, and sheepshead, drum, and Spanish mackerel are abundant in the deep, protected bight west of the Cape. Southward along the coast an arc of almost unbroken beach extends from Cape Fear to South Carolina's Winyah Bay; then follows a broken coastline of marshes, bays, and barrier islands through the remainder of South Carolina and Georgia, nearly to the St. Johns River. Then the broad, sandy beaches of eastern Florida sweep in a long curve to the Keys and the beginning of the Gulf coast. This much of the South Atlantic coastline can be seen and understood by everyone. We know much less about what lies beneath the surface, the undersea hills and valleys and currents that determine where the fish will congregate and in what numbers. Compared with offshore New England — fished, charted, and explored since the days of John Cabot — the South Atlantic and, as we shall see, the Gulf, are an unknown marine wilderness. We do know that the continental shelf, the gently sloping portion of the ocean floor that extends from the tide lines out to the 100-fathom FISH AND SHELLFISH 7 depth, is only about 30 miles wide off Cape Hatteras and averages 75 to 100 miles south of Hatteras to midway down the Florida coast, when it narrows suddenly to a mere 5 or 6 miles off Palm Beach and Miami. Since most fish are confined to the shallow waters over the continental shelf, and seldom venture out over true oceanic depths, the width of the shelf has a direct bearing on the fisheries. Offshore from Hatteras and Lookout, occasional beds of coral show the beginning of a truly southern fauna. Off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia numerous fishing banks are scattered over the continental shelf between the 10-fathom and 100-fathom line. These are like sub- marine hills rising above a deeper-lying plain, their tops covered with sand, coral rock, waving sea fans, and shells. Sea bass, jacks, flounders, snappers, grunts, and sharks are some of the species fishermen take on the southern offshore banks. Gulf coast Off the southern tip of Florida a long chain of islands — the Florida Keys — stretches out south and west into the Gulf like giant stepping stones. Their southern border swept by the Gulf Stream, the Keys arc almost inconceivably rich in marine life of all kinds, both fishes and the smaller invertebrate life they feed on. Some fish are more abundant on the southern side of the reef in the warmer Gulf Stream water, others on the north side. Not infrequently a "norther" drives kingfish and other species through the narrow channels between the reefs, making good fishing while the schools are concentrated in a restricted area. Above the Keys, the west coast of Florida is broken into a maze of waterways about the "Ten Thousand Islands," then swings north in a long arc, interrupted here and there by deeply indenting bays. The continental shelf is very wide off this coast — as much as 130 miles — and is crossed and furrowed by ledges and gullies where fish abound. Its outer margin is rocky and dotted with patches of coral. Westward, bays, sounds, marshes, and chains of islands mark the coast to the great delta of the Mississippi, built so far into the Gulf that off its tip the continental shelf is only about 10 miles wide. Beyond the Mississippi are more coastal marshes for mile after mile, bordered on the seaward side by barrier beaches, marked by vast nearly enclosed lagoons and bayous. These inside waters grow fine oysters, and they swarm with young shrimp. Redfish, trout, black drum and other fishes come in from the open sea as young fish and grow and mature in them. Of the open Gulf we know very little, for it is a region that has been strangely neglected by oceanographers, and with the single exception of the combined fishery for red snappers and groupers, the Gulf fisheries have been confined to a narrow band of coastal waters. The area of the Gulf is about 700,000 square miles. Except at the mouth of the Mississippi and again at Vera Cruz, the continental shelf which rims its basin is wide — 100 to 130 miles. The deepest part of the Gulf's floor — Sigsbee Deep off the coast of Yucatan — lies more than two miles below the surface, and much of the remaining area is from one to two miles deep. The Gulf has no offshore islands except the Keys of Florida and Yucatan, and the island of Cuba. Its tides have a range of only two to four feet; its currents sweep in a vast rotational movement about its shores, clockwise, leaving its boundaries by way of the Strait of Florida and pouring north through the Atlantic Ocean as the river of warm blue water known as the Gulf Stream. g CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 BOATS, MEN, AND FISHING GEAR Before the war, which made it necessary to use many fishing boats for other purposes, the fishing fleet of the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts was the largest in the United States and Alaska. While the number of large vessels was slightly below the number of similar craft used on the Pacific coast of the United States — 1,145 compared with 1 ,563 — the total number of vessels, motor boats, and miscellaneous small craft fishing out of southern Atlantic and Gulf ports was 16,194. The three Pacific Coast States had the next largest fleet, with 9,105 craft, end Alaska the third largest fleet of 5,138. The largest vessels operating in the southern area are the menhaden purse seiners, which cruise about in the larger bays or in the open ocean with a lookout posted in the crow's nest watching for schooling men- haden. They take with them several small boats from which fishermen carry out the actual operation of setting the seine- around the fish. The large menhaden seiners probably have the greatest annual production, per boat, of any vessels operating in the United States fisheries, running from 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 pounds. Another large and important section of the southern fishing fleet is made up of the shrimp trawlers, which bring in most of the catch of this valuable crustacean. The trawlers drag cone-shaped nets along the bottom of the sounds or ocean where the shrimp congregate in great- est numbers. Another good sized fishing vessel seen in the South is the schooner type, modeled after the famous Gloucester schooners, which operates chiefly out of Pensacola and visits the red snapper banks off the coast of Yucatan. A variety of smaller boats is used in operating the gill nets, haul seines, and dredges which are important in many southern fisheries. Pound nets, common in North Carolina, but not farther south, are tended usually by small motor boats. Fyke nets, dip nets, and cast nets may be operated from the shore. In 1940, approximately 28,000 persons were directly engaged in fishing in the States from North Carolina to Texas. Florida reported the largest number of fishermen — 8,902. North Carolina and Louisiana followed, with 7,113 and 4,858, respectively. Each of the other States had be- tween one and two thousand fishermen. MARKETING THE CATCH Although the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts furnish more than half a billion pounds of fish and shellfish annually, nearly half of this amount consists of menhaden, practically all of which is now processed into meal and oil and so does not enter the ordinary marketing channels. Some 250,000,000 to 300,000,000 pounds remain for distribution as fresh, frozen, canned, salted, or smoked products. Most of the fish landed at southern ports enters the fresh-fish markets. Despite the recent introduction here and there of the modern processing methods of preparing fillets, steaks, and tenderloins, the most prevalent custom is to ship the fish in the round, that is, without preliminary dressing. This fact makes it difficult for the southern States to compete with New England as a fresh-fish center, for in that area much of the catch is routinely processed in modern plants which turn out a con- veniently handled product, neatly packaged and quick frozen. At present the necessary shore facilities — filleting plants, freezing and FISH AND SHELLFISH 9 storage establishments, and the like — are extremely limited in the South. Likewise, the skilled labor necessary to operate such plants is almost unobtainable under war conditions. The piesent methods of handling the catch are particularly unsatis- factory as applied to some of the most important fisheries of the region, such as the mullet and Spanish mackerel fisheries. Extremely heavy catches of these species are made in a short period, so that in practice it has often proved impossible for the fresh fish markets to handle all the fish that are caught. The problem could be solved if means were available to dress the fish by filleting or other suitable means, quick freeze it, and hold it for distribution in accordance with market demands. Canning in the South is limited almost entirely to shrimp and oysters. It has been the practice to can the greater part of the shrimp, and this market form has undoubtedly been most familiar throughout the wide area in which shrimp is distributed, but there is now a strong trend toward freezing more shrimp and canning less. Practically all the oyster canning in the United States is done in the southern States, and Biloxi, Miss., cans more oysters than any other city in the world. Geographically, the products of the southern fisheries (exclusive of the canned pack) are distributed chiefly in the area bounded by the Mississippi River on the west and the Ohio River on the north. Certain species, however, have a much wider distribution. Probably shrimp and red snapper are shipped to more distant cities than any other southern seafoods. From the South Atlantic coast and all of Florida the heaviest ship- ments go north along the Atlantic coast. New York is an important market for this area, which ships as far north as Massachusetts, Michi- gan, and Illinois, and as far west as Texas and Kansas. From the Gulf coast many shipments go north by truck and freight up the Mis- sissippi Valley. Shipments are also made to the Middle Atlantic area, the New England States, the Rocky Mountain area, and the Pacific coast. BIOGRAPHIES OF THE FISH AND SHELLFISH OF THE REGION Mullet (Mugil cephalus and M. curema) The mullet is the most important food fish of the South. It supports the most valuable fishery in the States of Florida and South Carolina, and is caught in larger quantity than any other fish with the exception of menhaden in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. In the whole area from North Carolina to Texas, the catch of mullet is exceeded only by menhaden, which is used primarily for the manufacture of oil and meal, rather than as food, and by shrimp, the South 's major seafood product. Being an abundant and modestly priced fish, mullet is one of the staple foods of the lower income groups in southern coastal cities. Despite its low price, it is one of the better food fishes. It has a tender, firm-textured flesh which contains a clear yellow oil with a mild and nutlike flavor. Mullets are found throughout the world and there are about 100 different species, most of which are tropical. The most abundant United States species, the striped or jumping mullet (Mugil cephalus) itself has a wide distribution. On our east coast it occurs all the way from Cape Cod to Brazil. Occasionally a few stray mullet appear 10 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 north of the Cape, in the Gulf of Maine, but such an occurrence is rare and there are no regular fisheries north of the Carolinas. On the Pacific coast of the Americas mullet are found from Monterey to Chile and westwood to the Hawaiian Islands and Japan. In the eastern Atlantic they are common on the southern European coast and in the Mediter- ranean. They are often mentioned in the writings of the ancient Romans, and in Egypt they have been cultivated for centuries in the overflow deltas of the Nile. The white mullet, M. cnrema, is taken commercially in only a few localities, although it occurs all the way from Cape Cod to Brazil. It is abundant about Key West and the other Florida Keys, where it makes up the greater part of the mullet catch. It is so similar in Figure 1.— The jumping mullet gets its name from its habit of leaping as much as three feet out of the water, making it easy for fishermen to spot schools of this fish. appearance and habits to the striped mullet that fishermen do not often distinguish between them. In their relationships, the mullets are closest to the silversides, al- though much larger than these shimmering little minnows, and to the barracudas. The striped mullet is a rather stout bodied fish with large scales and averages 2 or 3 pounds in weight. Probably the record size is 10 pounds. A distinctive mark is the fact that it has two well separated dorsal fins, and that the more forwardly placed one is held stiffly erect, like a small sail, by its four spines. The color of the fish is a silvery grey, darker on the back, and with dusky stripings along the sides. Young mullet are a beautiful silver color, like a freshly minted dime. Mullet live in coastal waters and often run up into brackish river mouths to feed. In South America, Dr. Samuel Hildebrand, ichthy- ologist of the Fish and Wildlife Service, has found them as much as one hundred miles above the mouths of rivers, sometimes above high waterfalls. They are seldom if ever found in fresh water in the United States. In North Carolina, where there are important mullet fisheries, these fish usually spend the summer in the bays and sounds, feeding on the vegetation of the bottom. In the fall, apparently at a time when the spawn is maturing, the fish begin a mass exodus from these inside waters, passing out through the inlets and moving southward along the coast and presumably out to sea. At this time of year enormous catches ■ — sometimes as much as 62,000 pounds in a single haul of the net — are made by the mullet fishermen. Because mullet are schooling fish and especially because they have FISH AND SHELLFISH 11 a remarkable habit of jumping as much as three feet out of the water, fishermen can easily sight an approaching school and set their nets about it. On the North Carolina coast they usually wait on the beach, boats and net in readiness, until the lookout on top of a nearby dune gives the signal that the fish are coming. With one end of the net held on shore, the seine is then carried out in a large semicircle around the fish and the free end brought in to the beach. The men then jump out of the boats and wade out into the surf to hold down the lead line in the lower margin of the net with their feet, otherwise the mullet will escape under the net. At best a number of them will leap over the cork line, sometimes making the mistake of jumping into the boats. Often two nets are set, one outside the other, so that the fish that escape the inner net may be caught in the outer. The net is drawn in as rapidly as possible and finally the central part, which now forms a sort of bag containing the fish, is hauled up on the beach, all the mullet flapping against the wet sand in their efforts to escape. In Florida mullet are caught chiefly at night. Although unable then to see the fish unless the night is bright, fishermen can hear a school splashing and so tell when to set the net. Gill nets, in which the fish become entangled as they attempt to pass through the meshes, are often used in Florida. Almost three-fourths of the entire U. S. mullet catch of 35 to 40 million pounds is taken in Florida, chiefly on the west coast. Although far below Florida in production, Alabama ranks second in the mullet fishery, followed by North Carolina. Mullet are present in abundance throughout the Gulf of Mexico, but they have been almost entirely neglected in Louisiana and Texas. When these fisheries are developed, production of this excellent fish can be greatly increased and it can be supplied in larger quantity to northern cities. The season of greatest abundance is from April through November, heaviest runs about Beaufort, N. C, occur usually in September, while the peak of activity in the Florida fishery comes in November. In that State the fishery in most counties is closed between December 1 and January 10, to protect the fish during the spawning period. The mullet lends itself especially well to cultivation, and has been raised in ponds for many centuries in various parts of the world. The ancient Romans practiced mullet culture, and so did the native chief- tains of the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands, who had large numbers of fish ponds built throughout the islands. The mullet and milkfish are still the principal species raised in these ponds. Some recent experiments at the Beaufort, N. C, laboratory of the Fish and Wildlife Service indicate that mullet culture in shallow, enclosed areas along the South Atlantic coast may be a future fish-cultural de- velopment of some importance. Dr. Herbert Prytherch, in charge of the laboratory, says that mullet which he placed in such an enclosure as two- or three-inch fish grew to an exceptional size in two years' time. The mullet do not require feeding, provided the growth of vegetation is stimulated by fertilization. At present mullet usually reach the market in the round, i.e., without being dressed, and these fish may be either fresh or frozen. Some mullet is now being filleted and popular demand will probably lead to more of them being prepared in this convenient form after the war, when labor and plant facilities permit. Part of the catch is salted, this product being chiefly for export. The roe also is eaten. Quite a range of sizes is available for the purchaser — anything from half-pound fish, which are best suited for broiling, to large five-pounders, 12 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 which should be baked. The Fish and Wildlife Service will furnish, on request, a leaflet containing seven laboratory-tested recipes for the preparation of mullet.1 Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) The Spanish mackerel is predominantly a fish of warm southern waters but despite this fact its distribution is astonishingly wide. It may be found as far north as Maine and as far south as Brazil. It occurs on the far side of the Atlantic in waters that wash the African coast and it lives in the Pacific from San Diego to the Galapagos Islands. In the United States only a few thousand pounds are taken on the Pacific coast, however, and although commercial catches are reported on the east coast all the way from New Jersey to Texas, the real center of abundance of this species is in Florida. 12,693 Figure 2.— The Spanish mackerel roves the warm southern oceans in search of its prey, the smaller schooling fishes. Only a little more than a hundred years ago, the Spanish mackerel was the subject of one of the shortest biographies ever written. "A fine and beautiful fish; comes in July," wrote the ichthyologist Mitchell in his "Fishes of New York," published in 1815. Even in the late 1800's not a great deal could be added to this one-sentence description. The Spanish mackerel was known only as an excellent food fish and a gamy fighter, which appeared in the Middle Atlantic area during the summer months, retiring in the fall to some unknown wintering ground. Where the fish goes in the winter is no longer a mystery, for most of Florida's 6,000,000 pound catch is made between November and March, when the Spanish mackerel is absent from more northern waters. It is now apparent that there is a northward migration in the spring, bringing it into the North Carolina area during April and into the lower Chesapeake Bay by May or June. With the first signs of fall and chilling waters, however, it returns to the more comfortable south. Unlike the groupers, snappers, and drums, which lurk in coral patches or roam over deep-lying ocean bottoms, the Spanish mackerel live almost entirely at the surface. Traveling, they move in schools, and are easily seen at the surface as they pursue their food or clear the water in apparently playful leaps. According to Goode (1887) "the surface of the Chesapeake or the Gulf of Mexico is sometimes broken up for miles by the movements of large schools of these fishes, while the air is en- livened by the screaming flocks of terns, which follow them, to gather up the fragments of their feasts." 1 Fishery Leaflet 48, Striped mullet and their preparation for the table. Mimeographed, 4 pp. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, Chicago 54, 111. FISH AND SHELLFISH 13 Schools of menhaden are the principal source of food for the predatory Spanish mackerel, which also feed on any other schooling species, such as mullet, silversides, and the common Boston mackerel where the ranges of the two species overlap. This is considered an even more beautiful fish than the famed dolphin. It is a deep blue with iridescent tones of gold and purple on the back and sides and silvery below, while along the flanks are three irregular rows of gold spots, "like new gold dollars," as an early writer put it. When they are youngsters, only an ichthyologist could distinguish the Spanish mackerel from its close relatives the kingfishes or ceros (Scom- beromorus cavalla and S. regalis) but the adults develop characteristics which make it fairly easy to tell them apart. The Spanish mackerel is a smaller fish than either of the others, averaging only about 2 pounds, and attaining a maximum weight of 20 to 25 pounds. S. regalis, which is abundant in this country only about the Florida Keys, averages 5 pounds and may reach 35 ; S. cavalla averages 7 and reaches a maximum of 50 to 75. Apart from size differences, if a fish of this group has yellow spots on its flanks and a gradually curving lateral line, it is a Spanish mackerel; if it has spots and one or two continuous black lines along its sides it is S. regalis; if it has no (or at most a scattered few) spots and a lateral line that drops abruptly opposite the second dorsal fin, it is S. cavalla. The Spanish mackerel spawns while on its summer migration, at least from the vicinity of the Carolinas to Long Island, but we do not know whether spawning may also take place north and south of these limits. Hildebrand and Cable (1940) found larvae only a few days old in the open ocean off Beaufort, N. C, from late June until early September, but none in the inshore waters. The lower Chesapeake Bay, however, is a spawning ground for Spanish mackerel, although the fish are not as numerous in the Bay as they formerly were. In Florida, where almost the entire commercial catch is made, fisher- men take the Spanish mackerel in gill nets and purse seines. Most of the gill netting is done at night, because the fish are unable to see the net in the darkness and are more likely to gill themselves. The boats carry powerful searchlights to aid the crews in locating the fish. When the mackerel are sighted, the fishermen set their nets around the school as quickly as possible, marking its position by lanterns mounted on cork floats. The next step is to frighten the fish as much as possible, causing them to plunge against the net and become entangled by their gill covers in its meshes. This is done by splashing in the water with oars, or by rowing directly into the space enclosed by the nets. Although there is nothing to prevent the fish from swimming deep and escaping under the net, their habits are such that they ordinarily remain at the surface, either gilling themselves or escaping over the cork line. As long as Spanish mackerel have been caught, they have been con- sidered one of the choicest species of the east coast, ranking close to the pompano in popular esteem. They are usually marketed whole, and are best broiled or baked. Shipments are made throughout eastern United States with New York one of the most important markets. Kingfish (Scomberomorus cavalla) The kingfish, giant relative of the prized Spanish mackerel, takes top rank among the game fishes of America and is only a little less valued than its relative as a food fish. It occurs in great numbers at certain 14 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 seasons off the coast of Florida and rarely is seen as far north as Cape Qod. Southward, the limit of its range is Brazil. The only important production center for the kingfish in the United States is Florida, where three to three and a half million pounds are taken. A very small catch is made in Texas. In Florida the related species, S. regalis, taken chiefly about the Keys, is also called the kingfish and fishermen seldom distinguish between them. The season for kingfish in Florida is about the same as that for the Spanish mackerel, or from November to March. It is taken along both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, chiefly by trolling, and is found in large schools, ranging the waters of the open sea in search of menhaden and other small fish. It is noted for its remarkable leaps, often clearing the Figure 3. — The kingfish is a favorite of Southern sport fishermen and also a choice food fish. water by 10 feet or more. Fishermen seeking Spanish mackerel often take the kingfish incidentally, because of the similar habits of the two species, but it is so strong and has such sharp teeth that it does consid- erable damage to the gear. Kingfish taken by trolling usually run from 15 to 30 pounds in weight, but the maximum size for the species is about 75 pounds. Its size, strength, speed, and great fighting powers make it one of the most important game fishes on the coasts of Florida and North Carolina. Like the Spanish mackerel, it is a fish of fine flavor, with few bones. The larger fish are sold in steaks, the smaller ones whole. Most of the catch is marketed along the eastern seaboard, Richmond and New York being especially important markets for this species. Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) The bluefish is another warm-water species which migrates up and down the Atlantic coast from Florida to Massachusetts following the schools of menhaden and other small fish and avoiding chilly climates. In midwinter bluefish are to be found in southern Florida, where the bulk of the commercial catch is made. Like migrant birds, they turn north with the spring, and by March and April large schools are passing the coasts of the Carolinas. They reach Long Island in late April or early May, Massachusetts by late May. In some years, probably when they are especially abundant, they pass Cape Cod and appear during the summer months in Massachusetts Bay and as far north as Maine, but these waters are beyond the range of their normal summer wanderings. The total United States catch of bluefish was only 2,629,000 pounds in 1940, the most recent year for which we have a complete record. This was the low point of a catch that has been steadily dropping since 1936, when nearly 10,000,000 pounds were taken. The entire history of the fishery for bluefish is one of rapid changes in abundance. Probably the FISH AND SHELLFISH 15 largest catches — some 20,000,000 pounds — were made about 1900, but during several periods the yield has fallen as low as the present level. We know too little about the natural history of the bluefish to be able to give a satisfactory explanation of these changes in its abundance. In lean bluefish years it is the custom for sport fishermen to say that scarcity of menhaden, probably the favorite food of the bluefish, is responsible. This supposition has never been proved and the records do not show that the changes in abundance of the two species coincide. A more probable explanation is that the bluefish, like many other marine species, is subject to extreme hazards during the first days and weeks of life from unfavorable winds, currents, and water temperatures, as well as from the attacks of natural enemies. In the case of the Atlantic w Figure 4.— The bluefish, a strong, swift fish of the open sea, may run up to three feet in length and is a deep bluish green above with silver below. mackerel it has been proved that if, during the brief spawning period, the water is unseasonably cold or the set of winds and currents is such as to carry the young fish out of their normal nursery areas, practically the entire brood may perish. If this happens two or three years in succession, there is an acute shortage of mackerel. Perhaps something very like this happens in the life of the bluefish, but we shall have to wait until we know more of its life history before we can explain the ups and downs of abundance. The bluefish, which commonly attains a weight of 10 pounds (the record specimen, taken at Nantucket Island, weighed 27 pounds), has quite a reputation for the size of its appetite and the ferocity of its attacks on schooling menhaden, mackerel, herring, or other small fishes. According to old and often quoted accounts, these attacks go far beyond what is necessary to satisfy the appetites of these bold sea hunters, which leave a trail of mutilated fish in their wake. Writers of past generations used to speculate about the number of fish destroyed by bluefish each year, seldom agreeing in their estimates but always arriving at astronom- ical figures. Of all the fish tribe, the closest relative of the bluefish that is widely known is the pompano, generally voted the choicest food fish of the Atlantic coast. Like its relative, the bluefish is excellent eating. Since market sizes run from one to seven pounds, it is sold whole and may be baked, broiled, or fried, according to size and the preference of the cook. In Florida, where the only important commercial catches are made, bluefish are taken usually between mid-December and mid-February. The same gill nets that take the Spanish mackerel also capture the blue- fish, although small quantities are taken also by trolling. New York is an important market for these southern bluefish, which are available at a season when the fish are absent from northern waters. 16 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 Red Snapper (Lutianus hlackfordii) The red snapper is perhaps the most widely known of all the fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Although the annual catch — 6 to 7 million pounds — is not large compared with the major fisheries of the country, the red snapper is known and highly regarded in many cities in the north, to which considerable quantities are shipped. It is usually the most color- ful item in a seafood market's display case or window — a large, bril- liantly colored fish running up to 30 pounds in weight and 2% feet in length. Although often sold whole, one of the larger snappers is likely to be beyond the modern family's capacity and so the present market forms include steaks and fillets, quick frozen and fresh. Red snapper is available throughout the year, and the housewife may use any method of preparation she likes, for it is good broiled, baked, steamed, or boiled. The meat is juicy, white, and of fine flavor. Most people consider a baked red snapper one of the choicest delicacies the sea provides. Figure 5.— The Gulf coast's red snapper is known all over the United States as a choice food fish. Most red snappers are caught in the Gulf, with the most extensive known fishing grounds — the Campeche 3ank — lying off the coast of Yucatan and some 400 miles from Pensacola, the principal United States port for this fish. Small boats out of Galveston, Mobile, Panama City, and Tampa also fish on the Campeche Bank, taking both snappers and groupers, which commonly occur on the same grounds. There is also good fishing for these species around the edges of smaller banks, known as "lumps," off the United States coast of the Gulf. At least five species of snappers are taken by United States fishermen, although the red snapper, Lutianus blackfordii, is caught in much the largest quantity. About Key West, the yellowtail, Ocyurus chrysurus, is the most important of all the snappers and is regarded as one of the choicest of the local food fishes. It averages about a pound and is com- monly taken on the outer reefs. The gray snapper, L. griseus, is an even more abundant fish about Key West but because it is also exceedingly wary not as many are caught. This snapper has an interesting habit of traveling in schools that may number thousands of individuals. If not disturbed, such a school may hover in one place for hours, easily seen through the clear water. The gray snapper is a good food fish and FISH AND SHELLFISH 17 market sizes are from one-half to five pounds. In commercial import- ance, the muttonfish (L. analis) probably ranks next to the yellowtail in the Key West area. It averages about 3 pounds and is an excellent food fish. The schoolmaster, L. apodus, is also rather common in southern Florida but its commercial value is less than that of the other species. Besides the species named many other members of the snapper family inhabit the waters of the West Indies, and these are among the most beautiful food fishes of the tropics. In his "American Fishes, " G. Brown Goode, who first recognized and named the red snapper, says they are "the tanagers and grosbeaks of the coral reefs." It is an interesting fact that the red snapper was not named until 1878, although it had been a favorite in southern markets long before that, and had even been introduced in the markets of New York, Wash- ington, and throughout the Mississippi Valley. In 1878 Dr. Goode, then Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, studied a number of specimens obtained from Florida and decided the fish was a species new to science. He named it Lutjanus black f or dii: hwtjanus (later spelled Lutianus) from an Asiatic name for a kindred species; blackfordii in honor of Eugene G. Blackford, then Commissioner of Fisheries of New York and an enthusiastic ichthyologist. Strangely enough, very little is known about the life history of the red snapper, in spite of the high esteem in which it is held. According to fishermen, snappers move into comparatively shallow water in the summer and in the fall move offshore again. At all seasons they seem to shift from one spot to another according to food supplies. They are believed to spawn in deep water, during the late summer and fall. Although the young of related species commonly appear along our southern shores and may be caught in beach seines, young red snappers are seldom if ever taken in such localities. Offshore, the red snappers live in deep holes and rocky gullies where small fish, crabs, shrimps and other marine creatures which are their prey are abundant. Usually found on the same grounds with them are the groupers, which ordinarily outnumber the snappers about two or three to one. They prefer warm water and if the temperature falls below 50° they are likely to move off in search of a more congenial climate. Their only enemies are sharks and a few of the larger carniv- orous fishes, such as the enormous jewfish. The center of the red snapper fishery is now Pensacola. From that port, a round trip to the Campeche Bank takes about 23 days: 4 days each for the trip out and returning, 15 days fishing. Many of the red snapper boats are small craft but owing to the skill and experience of their skippers and crews they are able to weather the heavy blows and rough seas of the Gulf. Snappers are taken in water several hundred feet deep, and most of the catch is made with hook and line. According to Jarvis (1935) a crew of 9 men can haul in from 7,000 to 10,000 pounds a day, depending on the depth of the water, the tide, and the wind. The large schooners which fish on the Campeche Bank take most of their catch between October and April, while the smaller boats fishing along the United States coast, being more dependent on good weather, operate largely during the spring and summer. Groupers (Genera Epinephelus and Mycteroperca) The groupers belong to one of the largest and most widely distributed families of fishes in the world — the sea basses or Serranidae. The sea 18 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 bass tribe is so numerous, affects other fish so directly because all its members are carnivorous, and is found in so many locations, that it is usually considered the dominant group of marine fishes. The larger members of the family are prized as food wherever they occur. As might be expected in such a large family, many rather diverse fishes are included in it. The sea basses, groupers, jewfishes, and others belong to the group, which numbers about 120 species in North and Central America. Common names of members of the sea bass family range all the way from gag, scamp, and tally-wag to such elegant designations as the princess rockfish. The name grouper is thought to be a corruption of the Portuguese "garoupa" for a similar species. Figure 6.— The red grouper is one of the stople food fishes of the south. The five or six million pound catch does not permit large shipments to other areas. Probably the most abundant of the groupers, and so the most im- portant commercially, is the red grouper, Epinephelus morio, found from Virginia to Rio de Janeiro, and sometimes straggling. northward as far as Woods Hole, Mass. It grows to a length of 2 or 3 feet and may weigh from 20 to 40 pounds. Also of some importance commercially are the Nassau grouper, E. striatus, common from Florida to Brazil and occasionally taken as far north as North Carolina, and three members of the genus Mycteroperca — the yellowfish grouper, M. venenosa, the black grouper, M. bonaci, and the gag, M. microlepis. All of these are found in greatest abundance on the Gulf coast but most also occur along the South Atlantic coast and both red and black groupers are reported from Woods Hole. Whether these are fish that have traveled north in the Gulf Stream or are permanent residents of New England is some- thing that has not been determined. The red grouper is commonly taken on the same grounds with the red snapper, and is caught with the same kind of gear. On some grounds the groupers outnumber the snappers by two or three to one, although they are rather solitary fish and seldom school. Most groupers are masters of the art of camouflage. When resting among corals or seaweeds, where there is a background of mingled lights and shadows, their color pattern is usually banded. This banding, as a rule, fades out as soon as the fish rises from the bottom and begins to swim through open water. Then it usually is a very pale and ghostlike color which makes its outlines hard to discern. Apparently the changes FISH AND SHELLFISH 19 are not related to motion or inactivity alone ; groupers have been seen to flash their color bands on and off at the approach of another fish of different species. For these interesting observations on camouflage as well as on many curious habits of groupers and other fishes of the coral reefs we are chiefly indebted to the late Dr. William Longley. During many hours spent in a diving helmet, he studied fishes in their natural surroundings and his accounts (Longley and Hildebrand, 1941) of what he saw made the sport of fish watching seem at least as interesting as bird watching, and nearly as practicable. Some groupers, on first acquaintance, would take food from his hand, while others were more shy. Red groupers, he found, would sometimes allow him to touch them even though he offered them no food. He describes one of the bolder fish — a Nassau grouper — as follows: One that I fed frequently usually appeared promptly upon my approach from under the coral heads and got under foot and picked at my pockets, in which I carried crawfish tails for it. It could scarcely be driven far enough away to photo- graph, and might easily have been captured with bare hands if it had not been so strong, hard, and slippery. One of the grouper family, the spotted jewfish, Promicrops itaiara, is one of the largest of all fishes, the record specimen weighing 693 pounds. Small jewfish taken in shallow water weigh up to 10 pounds but the average weight of those caught commercially about Key West is about 125 pounds. The jewfish is caught on strong tackle resembling that used for sharks and is often brought in alive to the dock, where it is hitched to a stake in shallow water to await disposal in the markets. When the fish are dressed they are usually cut into steaks, and the local demand is so heavy that only limited quantities are available for other markets. The spotted jewfish is confined to tropical waters but is found on both Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Most of the groupers when fully grown weigh as much as 40 or 50 pounds, although market forms usually range from 5 to 15 pounds. They are sold whole, or as steaks or fillets. They are usually fried or broiled, or the fillets may be baked in a sauce. Groupers are caught throughout the year. The chief market for groupers is in the south- eastern States, which receive about three fourths of the catch. Outside this area, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago receive a limited quantity. Sea Trouts (Genus Cynoscion) The sea trouts belong to the croaker family and so are related to the drums, croakers, and spots rather than to the well-known fresh water trout. They are exclusively marine fishes and one or more species are found all along our coast from Cape Cod to Texas. The spotted sea trout, Cynoscion nebulosis, is the most important of the group in the southern fisheries, being taken in some abundance from North Carolina south with the center of the fishery in the Gulf. The gray sea trout, C. regalis, is taken in greater quantity than the spotted in the fisheries of North Carolina, but farther south it is relatively scarce and in the Gulf it occurs only occasionally. A third species of some importance is the white or sand sea trout, C. arenarias, found only in the Gulf. Perhaps because it is small — 11 to 15 inches — it is rather neglected by fishermen. The spotted sea trout is an excellent game and food fish that brings a good price at all seasons of the year and is universally popular in the markets. The flesh is white, tender, and of delicate flavor. The smaller sizes are sold whole and are best broiled or fried. The larger sizes may 20 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 be baked, although they are often filleted and in this form may be broiled. They are taken throughout the year, but in greatest quantity in spring, summer, and fall. The white sea trout, the smaller species, is a good pan fish. Although it is taken now in small quantities — about a quarter of a million pounds compared with seven million pounds of the spotted sea trout — probably it will receive proper appreciation in the future when the larger species are no longer able to meet the demand. At least in some areas, the spotted trout, unlike most shore fishes, remains in the shallow waters inshore throughout the year, instead of moving out into deeper water to escape the cold. In North Carolina it is one of the few fishes available to the haul seine fishermen during the Figure 7.— The spotted sea trout is the most abundant member of its family from the Caro- lines to Texas. lean winter season. Ordinary winter temperatures do not affect the spotted trout adversely, but a period of unusual cold will cause large numbers of them to become numb and helpless. At such times they can be picked up by the bushel along the shores. If taken into a heated room they quickly revive, so the numbing apparently is not necessarily fatal. The larger trout travel in small schools, preying on shrimps and small fishes. They themselves are taken by large predatory fishes and some- times are followed and harried by schools of porpoises. Unlike the mullet, famous jumpers, they swim low in the water, making little or no ripple at the surface. When close to the shore line, they usually move in with the rising tide and offshore with the ebb. In contrast to the red and black drums, the spotted trout in Texas usually spawns in inshore bays and lagoons, rather than in the open Gulf. The spawning season extends from early April to September in Texas, in North Carolina probably from May into August. The spawning female produces from half a million to a million eggs. Prob- ably most spotted trout mature and spawn for the first time when they are two years old, and about a foot long. As not infrequently happens among fishes, the males are smaller than the females, the average dif- ference being about 2 inches. In Texas most of the commercial catch is made with hook and line in the passes or channels and with drag seines in the bays and lagoons. A small amount of gill-net and trammel-net fishing is done during the- winter along the northern Texas coast, and a few fish are taken with light surf seines along the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. The largest FISH AND SHELLFISH 21 catches of the spotted trout are made on the west coast of Florida and in Texas and North Carolina. Redfish or Red Drum (Sciaenops oceUata) The redfish is really silver with a suffused gleam of red over its scales, like a color reflected on metal. Much of this illusive color disappears soon after the fish is taken from the water, so that the redfish in the market lacks the splendid coloration of the red snapper or the New England rosefish. It is, however, a graceful and handsome fish, longer and more slender than the related black drum, and bearing one or more conspicuous black spots at the base of the tail fin. Figure 8.— The redfish is a member of the drum family, but in this species only the males are equipped to make the characteristic drumming noises, while the females are silent. As might be expected of a fish that is found in commercial quantities all the way from New Jersey to Texas, the redfish is known by various names. Usually called redfish on the Gulf coast where it is most abundant, it is known as the red drum or spot bass on the Atlantic coast. Surf anglers, who ask for nothing better than a struggle with this gamy fish in the tumbling breakers, often call it the channel bass. For market purposes, redfish from 2 to 25 pounds or so are taken, the larger sizes being dressed as steaks or fillets. Redfish larger than 25 pounds are of interest chiefly to sportsmen, being less tender and palatable than younger fish and also being protected in some States as a spawning reserve. The largest specimens on record were about five feet long and weighed about 75 pounds. The redfish is one of the more important food fishes of the Gulf coast and is taken in some quantity also along the South Atlantic shore. The total catch is about a million and a half pounds, of which slightly more than half is caught in Florida. Most of the Florida catch, in turn, is taken on the west coast. In Texas, where the redfish ranks fourth in volume of catch among the fin fishes, about a quarter of a million pounds are caught. The spotted sea trout is the only fish taken in larger quantity in Louisiana. While the fishing seasons for redfish extend throughout the year in the various parts of the southern coast, produc- tion peaks come in the period from February to June and again in the fall in Texas, and from November to April in Florida. Although the redfish has been known to fishermen for at least 60 or 70 years, much of its life history has been, and still remains, a mystery. 22 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 Pearson, (1928), studying the species on the southern Texas coast, found that the fish spawn in that area mainly in the fall of the year. This part of the coast is bordered by a chain of long, narrow barrier islands which lie off the mainland, separated from it by a series of bays. Several channels or passes connect the bays with the open Gulf, and Pearson found that the redfish tended to spawn to seaward of these passes, the newly hatched young then drifting in with the tides and currents to the bays and lagoons. In these protected waters they develop rapidly and soon reach a stage where they can swim under their own power and without regard to prevailing currents. They scatter widely, usually seeking the quiet, grassy bottoms where they find better protection from enemies than on bare, sandy'bottom. Sometimes this habit reacts to their destruction, for abnormally low tides may occasionally drain the water out of these shallow flats and leave the young fish stranded by the thousand. With the coming of the cold weather of their first winter, the young redfish, by this time from 2 to 6 inches long, find their way into the deeper bayous, which are inland channels between bays or running into the mainland from the bays. When spring comes they leave the inland waters for the first time, some going out through the passes to the open waters of the Gulf, others wandering through the inland bays and lagoons. Redfish less than a year old have been taken 75 miles from the nearest pass, through which they must have been carried as eggs or larval fish. After their first year most redfish winter in the deeper bays or in the Gulf, returning to inside waters in the spring. The fall exodus is not especially noticeable, but the spring migration is undertaken by large bodies of fish moving together through the various passes, where a good many are taken by hook and line fishing. The adult or bull redfish wander up and down the sandy shores of the Gulf throughout much of the year, assembling in the fall about the mouths of the passes to spawn. These large fish are seldom seen in the bays and lagoons, probably because they are easily frightened by the disturbances made by speedboats in the shallow waters, Pearson suggests. Redfish are themselves no mean connoisseurs of seafood. Shrimp and crabs are their favorite foods. They also eat a few fish, especially mullet and small minnow-like forms, and on occasion take almost any of the small invertebrate sea life which they come upon in their wanderings. Redfish grow very rapidly. They are about 13V2 inches long when a year old and about 21 inches by the end of the second year. It is be- lieved that as a practical conservation measure, they should be pro- tected from capture until they are about 16 inches long, or approxi- mately a year and a half old. At this length they weigh about three times as much as at 12 inches, and are a more desirable market size. Black Drum (Pogonias cromis) The black drum may be taken anywhere from the shores of Long Island to the mouth of the Rio Grande, but it is only in Texas that it becomes a really important commercial species. In that State it ranks third among the commercial fisheries, only the red snapper and the spotted sea trout being taken in greater quantity. The amount of drum caught by all United States fishermen during recent years has run from one to two million pounds annually, and of this Texas furnishes from 50 to 80 percent. Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina are next in order, and small amounts are taken in all the other southern States. FISH AND SHELLFISH 23 The drum is a heavyweight among fishes — the largest specimen known weighed 146 pounds — but for market purposes the smaller sizes ranging from 8 to 20 inches long are most desired. These are good food fishes and lend themselves to broiling or to baking, provided fat is added, for the flesh is somewhat lean. Quite aside from its food qualities, the black drum is an exceptionally interesting fish. It is probably the best musician of all the large family of drums or croakers to which it belongs. People who have always sup- posed fish to be universally silent creatures are surprised to learn that many of them have voices so loud that they can actually be heard a considerable distance above the surface of the water. These vocal ef- fects, in the case of the drums, are produced by the vibration of special Figure 9.— The black drum is sometimes called the sea drum to distinguish it from its fresh-water relative, the sheepshead or gaspergou. band-like muscles against the taut air bladder. The black drum is now believed to be the subject of the old Indian legends in the country about Pascagoula Bay. According to these tales, mysterious music of sup- posedly supernatural origin, described as sweet, plaintive, and low, could be heard on summer evenings apparently issuing from the water. Fishermen are now well acquainted with these sounds, and know that they indicate the presence of a large school of drums. Whether the drumming is a call to attract the opposite sex or an expression of con- tentment, as at feeding time, is uncertain, but some observers think the fish are most vocal during their spawning migration. The males are said to drum very loudly, while the females have softer voices. The black drum has such large and competent pharyngeal teeth that it is not hard to guess that its favorite food is shellfish. While generally reported to be an oyster pirate of no small capacity, in Texas it actually prefers a small clam which is very abundant in the shallow bays of that State. These clam beds are well known to the fishermen as yielding- good hauls of drum. The fish suck the clams up out of the mud in which they lie and crush the shells ; although they swallow so many shell frag- ments along with the meats that at least two pounds of them have been taken from the stomach of a large fish. In some places in Louisiana stockades or fences have been built to keep the drums off the oyster beds. They apparently are great gluttons, and when feeding stand on their 24 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 heads with their tails out of the shallow water, oblivious to all but the meal at hand. On the Texas coast the drums spend a great deal of their time in the shallow inshore bays, both summer and winter. Sometimes the water in the passages to the deeper bays becomes so shallow that they have great difficulty navigating these channels and often are badly lacerated by passing over the oyster reefs. It is said that farmers used to chase the large drum over the shallows with pitchforks. Young drums look so different from their elders that they were for- merly supposed, even by ichthyologists, to belong to a different species and were called the "banded drum" because of the broad brown and white bands on their sides. When fully grown the drum is a silvery black with black fins. Those taken in the open Gulf are often more silvery; those in inshore waters more black. The whisker-like barbels on the lower jaw are typical of the species. The scales of the black drum are large and silvery and are extensively used in making ornamental objects and jewelry. They are so hard and so firmly embedded that it is necessary to remove them with a hatchet. Before the spawning season — from late February to May — the black drum move out through the passes into the Gulf, spawning later near the entrances. The young drum enter the inside waters soon after hatching, remaining there until they are at least 4 inches long. A year- old drum is about 10 inches long; a five-year fish, 23 inches. The fish spawn when about two years old (14 inches long) and annually there- after. A four-foot drum produces about 6,000,000 eggs. Sportsmen are seldom interested in the black drum, which is a more sluggish fish than its graceful relative, the red drum or redfish. Some of the commercial catch is made on hook and line, but the heaviest catches are made with gill nets and seines. Shrimp (Penaeus setiferus) The Gulf coast is the chief source of the most popular crustacean in the United States — the shrimp. The American people eat ten times as much shrimp as lobster and half again as much as they consume of crab. And of the 150 million pounds of shrimp taken from the sea each year for cocktails, salads, and appetizing cooked dishes, 85 per- cent comes from the Gulf coast and 66 percent from the State of Loui- siana alone. It is safe to assume that our fathers and grandfathers, unless they happened to live along the southern coast, knew very little about shrimp, for in the 1880's, when our first statistics were gathered, the catch was only about 10 million pounds. After the turn of the century it began to increase slowly — 17 million pounds in 1905, 24 million in 1910, 57 million in 1920. By 1927 the yield of this small but delicious crustacean had passed the 100-million-pound mark, and in 1940 it reached 150 million pounds. While canned shrimp has been for many years the most familiar market form, an interesting trend toward the greater use of fresh and frozen shrimp set in during the period of the war. During 1943, for example, the pack of canned shrimp on the Gulf coast declined 25 per- cent compared with the previous year, although the catch increased by about 10 percent. Although the immediate reasons for the decline of shrimp canning are the result of war conditions such as the shortage of cannery labor and the high prices obtainable for fresh shrimp, FISH AND SHELLFISH 25 many dealers predict that frozen peeled shrimp will be the mainstay of the postwar industry. Since some shrimp are taken throughout the year, even the fresh product is available at any season, but much the heaviest production takes place in the late summer and fall — usually the months from August through December. In life, the shrimp looks much like a small lobster. However, only the meat in the tail or abdomen is eaten, for the claws, which in the lobster furnish a good quantity of meat, are so small that most people would fail even to notice them. The so-called head contains the vital organs and is discarded by the packer, only the edible portions being shipped. The living shrimp is a pale green or gray creature and is Figure 10. — The shrimp, a small relative of the lobster and the crab, supports the largest and most valuable food fishery of the South. semi-transparent. The pink or reddish color develops upon cooking. The life story of an individual shrimp begins in the spring or sum- mer, when spawning takes place in the offshore waters. The eggs, mere specks of living matter, are discharged by the female and prob- ably remain near the ocean bottom during the period of rapid devel- opment that precedes hatching. This habit of the shrimp is entirely different from that of the closely related crabs and lobsters, in which the females carry the eggs on the abdominal appendages until they hatch. The young shrimp hatch from the eggs in a very short time — prob- ably about 14 hours. The newly hatched larva is able to swim about for itself and probably leaves the sea bottom very soon and moves up into the surface waters. As it floats in the currents, feeding on the minute life about it, the baby shrimp undergoes a series of changes and finally comes to resemble the adult form. By this time the cur- rents have carried it in to the coast line, where it enters the shallow inside waters and river estuaries and again takes up a bottom-dwelling habit. These inside waters are important nursery grounds for the young shrimp during the spring and summer. Since the spawning season of the shrimp extends over a period of several months — from March or April to August or September — this means that some young shrimp are arriving in the coastal area through- out the entire summer. The earliest arrivals reach commercial size during the month of July and by September practically the entire catch is made up of young shrimp from the spawning of the preced- 26 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 ing spring. The small shrimp winter on the inside grounds and along the beaches, but most of the larger shrimp move out into the open Atlantic or the Gulf to escape the chilly inside waters. Winter fisheries for these large shrimp now exist, and the so-called jumbo shrimp are taken in March, April, May, and June. These mature shrimp, now somewhat more than a year old, are caught throughout the summer on the offshore fishing grounds, but by September, when a new crop appears on the outside grounds, the older shrimp make up a very small percentage of the catch. Presumably the life span of the shrimp is between one and two years. Several of the southern States have adopted measures to protect the young, rapidly growing shrimp on their inshore nursery areas dur- ing the summer and fall. By waiting until the shrimp have made more of their growth, fewer individuals would be required to make up the normal 150-million pound annual catch. About two-thirds of the entire United States catch of shrimp is taken in Louisiana. Texas follows with ten percent, while Mississippi, Flor- ida, and Georgia each contribute 5 or 6 percent, North Carolina and Alabama 3 percent each, and South Carolina only 1 percent. Almost the entire catch is taken by small otter-trawl boats which drag bag- like nets along the bottom. Cast netting, formerly rather important, still brings in a few shrimp and very small incidental catches may be made by other gear such as haul seines. The Oyster (Ostrea virginica) Southern fishermen make more money from oysters than from any other item in their catch except shrimp and mullet. The annual yield of oysters in the States from North Carolina to Texas is some 20 mil- lion pounds, from which fishermen get slightly more than a million dollars, actually a higher return per pound than they receive from the more productive shrimp and mullet fisheries. Although the production of oysters now is about the same as fifty years ago considering the southern area as a whole, every State from North Carolina south shows a decline with the single exception of Louisiana. In contrast, that State produces four times as many oysters now as it did in the 1890's, and since its increase about matches the decline in all other southern coastal States combined, the total output shows little change. The oyster that grows along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts is the same species that occurs all the way up the Atlantic coast to Cape Cod, and sparingly beyond that point to Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is one of three species of oysters taken commercially in the United States, the other two being found on the Pacific coast, most abundantly in the State of Washington. In point of size, the Atlantic coast or eastern oyster is midway be- tween the tiny Olympia oyster of Puget Sound, the meat of which is about as big as a man's thumb nail, and the enormous Pacific or Japanese oyster, which has been known to grow a foot or more in length, although it averages much less. Under the best possible condi- tions, the eastern oyster might attain a length of 8 or 10 inches, but actually they are marketed when considerably smaller. Several stand- ard market sizes of shucked oysters have been established by custom, the smallest being known as standards, medium size as selects, and the largest as counts. Most oysters are now sold as shucked meats, having been removed FISH AND SHELLFISH 27 from the shells in shucking houses to which they are delivered by the tongers or dredgers. Depending on their size, there are from 150 to 300 eastern oysters in a gallon. Although the trade in shelled oysters is on the wane, some oysters are still shipped in the shell, the demand for this product coming chiefly from hotels and restaurants. Still others are canned. Practically all of the canned oysters produced in the United States are prepared in the southern area. The city of Biloxi, Miss., is now the world center for the canning of oysters, a title once held by Baltimore. In 1943, Mississippi packed 85,151 cases and Louisiana 79,614 cases, the remaining 50,090 cases coming from canneries in the States of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Normally, some oysters are canned on the Pacific coast, but there was no canning in this area in 1943 for reasons con- nected with the war. Oyster cultivation, which reaches its greatest development in New England (Carson, 1943) is practiced in the South only in certain areas. The most important of these is Louisiana, where practically all oysters come from cultivated and privately leased bottoms. This practice of cultivation has kept oyster production in Louisiana at a high level, while other southern States have declined. There are in- dications that scientific oyster farming may be undertaken in North Carolina and some additional areas after the war. Because of the long coastline, oysters grow under quite a variety of conditions between Hatteras and the southern Texas coast. Many people are surprised to learn that oysters never grow abundantly on the bottom of the ocean proper. Instead, they thrive best in enclosed bays, sounds, and river mouths, where the salinity has been reduced by the influx of fresh water from rivers and streams. In the more northern bays such as the Chesapeake or the Delaware, they may grow some distance offshore in water 30 or more feet deep, but along much of the southern coast the oyster beds are mainly between low and high water marks. In the shallow bays and estuaries of the Gulf coast, the natural oyster beds are seldom under more than 2 or 3 feet of water. In southern Florida, oysters sometimes grow attached to the aerial roots of the mangrove trees, submerged only by the high tide, and on the Gulf coast they sometimes grow on the grass at the edges of the marshes, in places where only the highest tides reach. On the Gulf coast the spawning season of the oyster is a very long one, beginning in March and continuing into November. So prolific is the oyster that a female may produce from 15 million to 114 million eggs at one spawning, or several hundred million in a summer. The eggs and sperms, discharged into the water, unite by chance and the fertilized egg produces a free-swimming larva in only 5 to 10 hours. The young oyster swims about actively, propelling itself by the vibra- tion of minute, hairlike cilia. For about two weeks it is a creature of the tides and currents, and may travel far from the place where spawning took place. At the end of this period it is a fully developed larva, about one seventy-fifth of an inch in diameter, and is now ready to become transformed into the juvenile form, which resembles the adult in general appearance. Before it can do this, it must give up its free- dom of motion by attaching itself firmly (by means of a cementlike substance which it secretes) to a rock, shell, or other hard object. Once attached, an oyster is never able to move about again of its own accord, although oysters growing in soft mud may shift their position by brisk opening and closing of the shells. The act of setting or striking, as the attachment of the larval oyster 28 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 is called, is full of danger, for even a few grains of drifting silt are enough to smother the tiny creature, and any larvae that come down on a surface covered with algae or other marine growths are unable to attach themselves and quickly die. Those which make a successful landing on a clean, hard surface soon change from the larval form into miniatures of the adult oyster, and in two weeks after setting — at the age of about four weeks — have shells a quarter of an inch long. Oysters from this size to two inches long are known as "seed oysters." In south- ern waters, where the water ordinarily is^warm enough for oysters to grow and feed during the whole year, they reach market size in two to three years. About four years are required in Long Island Sound, where the cold winters cause them to go into a state resembling hibernation. On the uncultivated reefs of the South are found many long, narrow, and irregularly shaped oysters which are known as coon oysters, a name said to have been given them because raccoons feed on them. These oysters are of little market value because the meats are small and poorly shaped. The coon oyster is the product of two conditions com- monly found along southern coasts — soft, muddy bottoms and excessive crowding of oysters in a narrow zone along the shore. Single oysters tend to sink vertically into the mud so that the shell stands on one end and then to grow into long, narrow, sharp-edged specimens. Other oysters crowd in closely around it, attach to its shells, and further in- crease the distortion of shape. Small coon oysters broken apart and planted on firm bottom change their form and develop into the typical pear-like shape of a good market oyster. Galtsoff (1930) points out that the coon oyster is not a geographic race but a product of its en- vironment, and says that in earlier days typical "coon oysters" existed in Long Island Sound, for they have been discovered in dredgings at the mouth of the Housatonic River. During their comparatively short lives oysters face many dangers. On the Gulf coast, especially, flood waters from the rivers or the break- ing of levees may reduce the salinity of the water over the oyster beds so greatly that large numbers die. Heavy storms may bury the beds under sand or dislodge clusters of oysters and throw them on the beach. Gales have sometimes been known to establish new beds by shifting oysters to areas where none had grown before. Besides storms and floods, oysters also have many natural enemies. Clams, conchs, and oyster drills which bore into their shells, and a peculiar sponge of a bright yellow color which bores into the shell and causes it to dissolve away are the most important of these enemies in the South. In its diet, the oyster is largely vegetarian. Most of its food con- sists of the minute, one-celled plants called diatoms which are carried to its mouth in the water which the oyster draws through its gills. The diatoms, like other marine plants, are nourished by the various minerals in the sea-water, and because of its diet the oyster itself is an excellent source of copper, iron, iodine, and other minerals essential in human nutrition. It also contains most of the essential vitamins, protein of high nutritive value, and starch in the easily digested form known as glycogen. Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus) The common blue crab of the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts is taken all along the eastern seaboard from New York to Texas. While more blue crabs have always come from the Chesapeake Bay than from any other section, the yield from more southern areas has been growing steadily. The State of Louisiana now produces almost half as many FISH AND SHELLFISH 29 crabs as are taken in the Chesapeake. Compared with Louisiana's 14 million pounds, North and South Carolina produce about 4 million each, Florida about 6 million, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi 1 to 2 million each, and Texas only about 250,000 pounds. Unlike its relative, the shrimp, the blue crab is only occasionally found in the open sea but prefers bays, sounds, and the mouths of rivers, where it lives in waters ranging from true ocean saltiness to brackish or even fresh. The so-called sweet-water crabs of the Atchafalaya River are taken in fresh water 25 miles from its mouth, and crabs are common in the Newport River of North Carolina. However, the chief commercial fisheries are in the bays and sounds, where the crabs are most numerous. Figure 11.— The blue crab of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is one of the best known crustaceans in the world. Because the Chesapeake fishery for crabs has been longest estab- lished and also because the bay apparently provides ideal surround- ings for their propagation, the habits and life history of crabs are better known in the Chesapeake than anywhere else. The general features are probably similar in all sections, however. Each year between the first of June and the end of August, in the Chesapeake Bay, a new generation of crabs is produced. At this sea- son the female extrudes the tiny eggs, each about 1/100 inch in di- ameter, and these together form a large yellowish mass known as the "sponge" and remain attached to the female crab. As the young develop within the eggs the sponge becomes darker. They hatch in about 15 days. Each baby crab is about 1/25 of an inch long, is shaped somewhat like a question mark, and has seven pairs of appendages and a long tail. At this stage it is konwn as a "zoea." As it grows the zoea sheds its shell several times. After the fifth or sixth shedding it changes into a form that is more truly crablike. This is the "mega- lops." Probably the first molt of the megalops changes the developing youngster into the true crab form, but it is decidedly a miniature crab, 30 CONSERVATION BULLETIN 3 7 only 1/8 inch across. This stage is reached about one month after hatching. After the megalops stage the crab molts about 15 times before reach- ing maturity, at first every 6 days and then after gradually lengthen- ing periods up to about 25 days between final molts. Ordinarily the crab gains about one-third in size with every molt. Crabs reach their full growth and maturity, and cease to molt, during their second sum- mer, when 12 to 14 months old. For the female crab, mating occurs only once in her life — immediately after the last molt, when she is still in the soft-shelled condition. In the Chesapeake Bay this is usually during the last of July or August. The sperm received from the male at this time is retained by the fe- male and used to fertilize such successive batches of eggs as she may lay during the remainder of her life. Usually the first spawning takes place when the female is about 2 years old, or during the summer fol- lowing mating. It is believed that some females live over another winter and deposit more eggs when 3 years old, but that few or none live longer than this. The life span of the male is probably about the same length. In the Chesapeake most of the young crabs hatched in the lower part of the bay soon begin a northward migration. Cold weather inter- rupts this journey and they settle to the bottom and cease to feed and also to grow until conditions are more to their liking. In the spring their migration is resumed, growth proceeds, and finally they reach Maryland waters as nearly mature crabs. It follows that the mating of the majority of the blue crabs of the bay takes place in Maryland. After mating the females return to the lower bay, but most of the males remain behind, spending the winter in deep holes or in creeks and rivers. Only about a fifth of the crabs taken in the lower part of the bay during the winter are males. Nearly all the sponge-bearing crabs are found in Virginia waters. Many people have the mistaken impression that the so-called "soft crab" is a distinct species. The term refers to any crab which has shed its old shell, before the new shell has hardened. As the soft- shelled crab is considered especially good eating, large numbers of young- crabs are sought in the spring and early summer while they are still molting. A newly molted crab is particularly helpless to defend itself or even to escape by swimming. The actual casting of the shell requires only a few minutes if all goes well — up to an hour if the crab is disturbed or has suffered recent injury. In a series of convulsive movements, the crab withdraws its five pairs of legs from the old encasements, having greatest difficulty with the large claws, and backs out of the shell. Under the old shell the skin is soft and wrinkled and the animal is flabby and helpless. Ordinarily the crab selects some sheltered place to undergo the molt, for during the 12 hours until the new shell hardens it is in imminent danger of being set upon by large fish or even by its own kind, or of being scooped up in a crabber's dip net. Crabs have the curious ability to cast off one or more of their legs and will use this habit to escape if caught and held by one leg. A sud- den drop in temperature may sometimes cause one or several legs to be snapped off. The break always occurs across one of the joints, which protects the crab from the danger of bleeding to death. Ordinarily, the legs are regenerated. As many as three or four replacements of the same appendage are possible. In the regenerative process, three or four molts are sufficient to provide a new, full-size limb. FISH AND SHELLFISH 31 On the Gulf coast the heaviest production falls in the months of May, June, July, and August. Some crabs are sold whole as taken from the water, in which case they should be alive when purchased, whether in the hard or soft shelled condition. Many people, however, prefer to buy the meat ready for use, and so most of the crabs caught on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts go to the packing houses where they are cooked and the meat removed and packed in convenient containers. Except for one cannery in South Carolina and two in Louisiana, the canning of crabs is confined to the Pacific coast, where a different species is taken, and to a small canning industry for the rock crab in New England. At the present time the most important markets for fresh crab are the cities of the Atlantic seaboard, which have long been familiar with this perishable product and know how to give it the special handling it requires. On the other hand, few mid-western cities know the blue crab as well, and as a result the interior markets to which the Gulf coast product could most profitably be shipped have not been fully developed. This lack of near-by markets for fresh crab has been an important factor in holding back the devolpment of a large fishery in the Gulf. Whether it could ever become as large as the Chesapeake fishery, however, is something that cannot be predicted until the crab populations of the region are investigated by a proper biological study. Other Fish and Shellfish The menhaden is one of the most interesting fishes on the Atlan- tic seaboard. It supports one of the oldest fisheries in America, ranks second in volume of production a