Part 6 (2/2)

”During the past two or three weeks we have received several specimens of very handsome salmon from Maine, where they have been caught by the smelt fishermen in their nets when they have been fis.h.i.+ng for smelt. I think these catches of salmon go very far to prove that the schools of fish are not very far off from our sh.o.r.es during the time that they are not found in the rivers, and that both shad and salmon, when they leave our rivers, do not go either east or south, but are within 100 miles or so of the rivers where they were sp.a.w.ned. The fish are remarkable in being in splendid condition and perfect in form and appearance.”

Mr. Cheney thinks the salmon taken off Cape Cod belong in either the Merrimac River or the Pen.o.bscot River; and, as in the year in question fish were being caught at the mouth of the Pen.o.bscot at the same time they were being taken at Cape Cod, he thinks it probable that the fish in the latter region were from the Merrimac.

In the pound-net fishery of the northern coast of New Jersey the recent capture of salmon has been a subject of much interest to the local fishermen and of considerable importance to fish-culturists and naturalists.

For a number of years a few salmon have, from time to time, been taken in Sandy Hook Bay, but within the past two or three years there has been an increase in the number caught. At Belford, the princ.i.p.al fis.h.i.+ng center in the bay, Mr. M. C. Lohsen states that some have been taken weighing from 12 to 40 pounds, and that in the spring of 1893 more than the usual number were caught in the pound nets. Mr. Harry White, of the same place, never took salmon in pound nets prior to 1891; he secured 1 that year and 2 in 1892, but failed to get any in 1893. Other fishermen, however, obtained one or two fish. The average weight of the salmon taken here is 12 to 15 pounds; the largest caught by Mr. White weighed 17 and one half pounds. Small ones, weighing half a pound each, are sometimes observed. It is only during the month of May that salmon are noticed on this sh.o.r.e. One weighing 16 pounds, taken in a pound net at this place in 1891, sold for $11; the following year two, with a combined weight of 23 pounds, sold for $15.95.

In the vicinity of Long Branch, we are informed of the recent capture of a number of salmon in the pound nets set directly in the ocean. Mr.

Ed. Hennessey, of North Long Branch, reports that in 1892 two salmon and in 1893 one salmon were taken in his pound; they weighed from 10 to 15 pounds each. In April, 1891, Messrs. Gaskins and Hennessey, of the same place, secured a salmon in their pound; this was the only one they ever took. Messrs. W. T. Van d.y.k.e & Co., pound-net fishermen of Long Branch, communicate the following instances of the taking of salmon by them in 1893: May 10, 1 salmon weighing 9 1/2 pounds; May 11, 1 salmon weighing 13 1/2 pounds; May 17, 1 salmon, and May 18, 1 salmon, weight not given. Messrs. West and Jeffrey, pound-net fishermen at Long Branch, report that in 1892 they caught 2 small salmon.

In 1893, 3 fish were taken, as follows: May 10, a salmon weighing 19 pounds; May 18, 1 weighing 12 pounds; May 20, 1 weighing 10 pounds. Mr.

Henry F. Harvey, who fishes a pound net at Mantoloking, N. J., about 35 miles south of Sandy Hook, communicates the information that in May, 1893, 2 salmon weighing 10 or 12 pounds each were taken at that place.

None had ever before been caught there.

One of the most interesting facts at hand concerning the oceanic occurrence of the salmon has been noted in a previous paper in this Bulletin, (*) but may be again referred to in order to make the present article more complete. Instances of the capture or observation of salmon far out at sea or even at relatively short distances from land are very rare and are ent.i.tled to publication whenever noted.

About April 10, 1893 the mackerel schooner _Ethel B. Jacobs_, of Gloucester, Ma.s.s., was cruising for mackerel off the coast of Delaware.

When in lat.i.tude 38 degrees, at a point about 50 miles ESE. of Fenwick Island light-s.h.i.+p, the vessel fell in at night with a large body of mackerel, and the seine was thrown round a part of the school. Among the mackerel taken was an Atlantic salmon weighing 16 pounds, which Capt. Solomon Jacobs, who was in command of the schooner, sent home to Gloucester. Capt. Jacobs informs us that the fish was fat and in fine condition. Some of the crew told the captain that there was another salmon in the seine, but it escaped over the cork line as the seine was being ”dried in.” The light-s.h.i.+p mentioned is about 10 miles off the coast, so the place where these salmon were taken was about 60 miles from the nearest land.

The foregoing is the only instance known to this Commission of the capture of salmon so far at sea on the coast of the United States or of the taking of salmon in a purse seine with mackerel under any circ.u.mstances. Capt. S. J. Martin, the veteran fisherman of Gloucester, Ma.s.s., has never known of another such occurrence, and a special inquiry conducted by him among the mackerel fishermen of that port failed to disclose the knowledge among them of a similar case.

Footnote: * Extension of the Recorded Range of Certain Marine and Freshwater Fishes of the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

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