Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

FISH.ERMEN'S ENEMIES.
A plague of jelly-fish again threatens
the souIth coast of P'ortland Bill (says
"'The Outlook," of July l7), and these
impalpalble creatures have' swarmedi in
their tens of thousands during lthe past
week or two. choking the selne-nets and
rendering de?m so lheavy in the water
that the ordinary complement of eight
men is powerless to h.uol thoai ashore.
TIhe jelly-fish is ilnteresting if only as
the least ?ulnerable, most prolific, and
also anost unconsclous of all 'the fisher
nran's enemies. It does not, like tie
porpoise and dog-dish, deliberately invade
the nets of set puirpose, rending the fish
and meshes together, and doing irrepar
able damage in clumsy efforts to escape.
lit mnorely drifts fwitlh. the current, as
purposeless almost os the :weed., w'hich
likewise chokes the nets to the despair
of those who workv them.
The worst enemies .of tile sea-fisher
man are not the Ibitals. These, it is true,
are endowed wit;h enormous a?spetitep,
but Ithe sea has abundance of small fry
for their requirements, and at any anto
they interfere with neither net nor line.
The dla'ihn sometimhte mada tby their
admnirers-that they warn the crews\ of
the whereabouts of dish itilat would other
wise escape notice--is discounted by
some, but on those coasts wvdere it is not
customary t'o cposlt watchers on the cliffs,
the gulls and gannets do undoubtedly
'perform such service. It is, however,
the porpoise, and in even greater degree,
tile dog-dish, which work most of the mis
chielf. These enemies cannot be 'onm
bated by any ordinary means. 'ile por
poise has ball?ed even Governments.
Every' now and ,then the French naval
authoriiies project a camlpaign against
these greedy creatures. enmploying diyna
mite and sha}pshLoolters. 'bu with de
plorably small effect. The sleek por
poise is a gentle.man of tile road. lie
is here 'toda.y and gone tonmorrow with
his booty. Against the individual oper
ationa are futile, and porpoises rarely
move in suffliciently dlose order to facili
tate concerted attack on theirs ranks.
Thh untiber that each season become
nacidentally entangled by their own
struggles in the imaokerel nets can "re
counted on the :fingers of both Ihands,
and 'these prisoners are usually paraded
on a barrow by the owners of the torn
net until time, far from thealing all
Wounds, has rendered them unfit for any
thing but hasty burial beyond the con
fines of the tow-n. It therefore looks
as if the porpoise muslt be endured.
Its' com?ercial value, in the matter of
such assets as hide and oil is consider
able, but no efficient tackle has yet
been devised for the regular capture of
so mobile a quarry, and even when, as
occasionally happens, several are strand
ed in a shallow tidal harbour, the fisher
men make little effort to secure 'them,
and their persecution is generally left
to every loafer wlho can raise an obsolete
firearu and add new terrors to life till
the next tide enables them to regain the
safety of the open sea.
Qiie difficulty with the dog-dish is
purely one of muinbers. Its capture is so
easy 'that it is caught in scores by
those 'who desire nothing -less. i1t at
tachlles itself to every baited book, and
gets tied up ill every net within reach.
Unlike the porpoise, its market value
is almost nil. Efforts s ere recently made
in the ootne of iPiymouth to popularise
it as an article of ooad. It is now
ulnderstood that these did riot !meet
with 'success. Why should they? A
nuamber of local' anagnates were sunm
moned to a banquet at wvrich dog-fish
was senved in a number of appetising
forms -tluat Rvould be wholly beyond the
unsophiosticated cuisine of the poorer
classes, to -which this fish would ulti
mately have Ito mnake its appeal. The
elect manfully ate their dog4-fsh, and,
hisbued no doubt by philanthropic mo
tives, bravely anade. speedies to the
effeot that it might be ranked with
sa?lnon. Then they returned to their
comfortable homes and hasd soles for din
ner The British public is not so easily
satisfied. lThe right and proper use of
dog-ilsh is in the extraction of oil, aild
possibly also in the conversion of the
rest into loshlimanure. Ile who shall
invent an economic plant to effect this
wh'I be a better tfriend to the. fisherman
that those who enobarked on the hope
les; scheme of forcing it on the coni
sumer as a substitute for tile breakfast
bloater. Even hloe primitive Viking
was content to quaff wvine 'rom the skull
of a vanquished foe. Jie did not eat
him. Let us put the redundant dog-fish
to sound commnercial use. There is no
need to smack our lips over so ediguast
ing a morsel.
$