Part 14 (2/2)
The fisherman does his work just as thoughtlessly as the hunter whose business it is to supply the market. He seems to think no more about the effect upon next season's supply, of his stretching a net across a river and catching all the fish going up to sp.a.w.n, than does the market hunter who would, if he could, shoot the last duck. Is it not strange that many fishermen will do anything in their power to evade the laws governing the catching of fish when by doing so they injure their own business?
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Edward S. Curtis_ A rocky island in the Pacific Ocean, used by seals as a sunning place.]
We have already nearly destroyed the mammals that live in the ocean.
Among them are the whales, which were once numerous in the arctic regions. Few whaling s.h.i.+ps now arrive with profitable cargoes of oil or whalebone. The sea otter, the fur of which is more highly prized than that of any other animal, and the walrus, valuable for its oil, are also nearly extinct.
No more cruel hunting was ever carried on than was that of the seal mothers in the open ocean where they go in search of food. When the mothers are killed the young ones, left in the rookeries upon the Pribilof Islands, soon die of starvation. The fur seal has thus been so reduced in numbers that it was threatened with extinction. Now Russia, j.a.pan, England, and the United States have agreed to stop all killing of the fur seal for a number of years.
As a result of the great demand for fish, and the careless methods used by the thousands of men engaged in catching them, Nature unaided cannot keep up the supply. For the purpose of a.s.sisting her, strict laws have been pa.s.sed in many states. These laws prohibit fishermen from stretching their nets or weirs across the streams so as to block the pa.s.sage of the fish when going to their sp.a.w.ning grounds. They also prohibit the taking of undersized fish and in some cases allow none at all of some kinds to be taken for a given time. Our government is now doing a great deal to save the food fishes of the country, but some varieties are still decreasing.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ An Indian fish trap.]
The little herring is the most valuable of all the sea fish. Enormous numbers are captured in nets, and still greater numbers form the food of other fish. The herring has so many enemies that it must increase rapidly in order to hold its place in the sea. Nature has arranged that this fish should produce twenty thousand or more eggs at each sp.a.w.ning season. It is thought that if only two eggs out of this great number hatch and grow up, the supply of herring will be maintained. This estimate does not, however, take into account the present terrible waste of herring in the Chesapeake and other bays on the Atlantic coast, where it is taken in nets and used for making land fertilizer. Is it any wonder that the herring is now decreasing in numbers?
The oyster was once hunted so closely that it would have disappeared from our coast waters if the young had not been taken and raised artificially. Is it not interesting to know that we plant young oysters on oyster farms, and raise oyster crops, all below the level of high tide? The greatest oyster farms in the world are upon Chesapeake Bay.
There are also oyster farms in other bays upon the Atlantic seaboard, and lately the oyster has been transplanted to the bays upon the Pacific Coast.
The lobster was trapped so industriously that it also began to grow scarce. Finally the government took up the matter of protecting it. The eggs and the young were guarded, and now it is increasing in numbers.
Once the sturgeon was very plentiful in the lakes and rivers of our country. For a long time it was thought to be of no value and was thrown away when caught in nets set for other fish. Then it was discovered that its flesh was delicious, and its eggs, known as _caviar_, became a very fas.h.i.+onable dish. After this there followed a period of most destructive fis.h.i.+ng, and now sturgeon are quite scarce and high priced.
Herring, shad, and salmon are migratory fish. By this we mean that they spend a part of their lives in the ocean but enter the bays and streams at the sp.a.w.ning season. You can readily understand that if the bays are blocked with nets the fish cannot reach the sp.a.w.ning grounds and their numbers must decrease. Chesapeake Bay contains such a maze of nets, many of them extending out ten miles from the sh.o.r.e, that it is a wonder that any fish get past them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ A fish wheel on the Columbia River, in which salmon are caught on their way to the sp.a.w.ning grounds.]
The waters of New England were once filled with striped ba.s.s, smelt, salmon, and shad, but now these fish are almost gone. The shad are rapidly decreasing all along the Atlantic Coast. The nets in Lake Erie extend out sometimes ten miles from sh.o.r.e, and the whitefish as well as the sturgeon have been greatly reduced in numbers there.
When the Pacific Coast was first settled, the ”salmon run” in the Sacramento, Columbia, and other rivers was a wonderful sight. The waters were fairly alive with these huge fish. Hydraulic mining so muddied the waters of the Sacramento that their numbers greatly decreased. Then came the fishermen and stretched their nets across the rivers, so nearly blocking the channels that the salmon were rarely seen on their old sp.a.w.ning grounds. Now salmon fis.h.i.+ng is carefully regulated and salmon are increasing.
The shallow waters of San Francis...o...b..y, the ocean for some miles out from sh.o.r.e, and the waters about the islands of Southern California form very valuable fis.h.i.+ng grounds, which, if they are taken care of, will furnish much larger supplies of fish than are now obtained.
The interesting discovery has been made that the waters around the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente form important sp.a.w.ning grounds for many food fish, including the great tuna. These waters were fished so destructively that many of the fish were found to be decreasing. This has led to the establishment of a fish preserve for three miles about Santa Catalina Island. Within this area no fish are allowed to be taken except with a hook and line. Some of the most valuable fish, which were almost gone, are now becoming more numerous.
The fact that the fish stay close about the island where the water is shallow makes the establishment of the preserve possible.
The salmon and halibut fisheries of the Alaskan waters have long been the source of much profit. This region, owing to the many bays and islands, fairly swarms with fish of many kinds. Protection will soon be needed here if this great storehouse of fish is to be kept filled.
The cod fisheries of the Newfoundland banks are among the most valuable in the world, and are almost the only ones where fis.h.i.+ng has long been carried on and where the supply is not decreasing. The ”banks” are formed by a great flat reef four hundred miles long, over which the water is shallow enough to offer a fine home for cod.
Hatcheries have been established in many parts of our country for the purpose of collecting and hatching fish eggs. These are used for restocking those waters that have been fished out. After the eggs have hatched and the young fish have reached a certain stage, they are s.h.i.+pped to the streams where they are needed. The United States fishery on the McCloud River, California, has distributed rainbow trout all over the United States. Shad and striped ba.s.s have been brought from Eastern fisheries and planted in Pacific Coast waters, where they are now rapidly increasing.
Thus we learn that valuable food fish live within certain narrow bounds instead of being distributed all through the waters of the globe. It is as easy, with our many ingenious devices of net and weir, to destroy the inhabitants of the water as it is to destroy those of the land with guns.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
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