Blackfish

“ Then, too, there are the "blackfish," as the fishermen jokingly call the pieces of drift-wood that get tangled up in the meshes. Sometimes these are so heavy as to tear open the nets, and then the shad escape with the "blackfish." Careless captains of passing boats often tear them, too, and occasionally pull down the poles in steering through the fishermen's rows. Extra nets are always carried in [Pg 722] the fishing-boats, and when a torn one is found it is taken ashore to be mended, and a whole net is put in its place. ”

“ The common blackfish of the North Atlantic is without a trace of color above, but has a narrow line of white on the breast and belly, which widens into a fountain-jet shape on the throat. The species found on the American Atlantic coast south of New York (G. brachypterus) is black everywhere upon its body, like the blackfish of the Pacific (G. scammoni) . Twenty-four feet seems to be about the maximum size of this porpoise, which in the entire family is exceeded in length only by the killer whale. ”

“ Almost as large as the grampus, but not nearly so savage, is the blackfish, which is so called on account of its color, for it is not a fish, being a member of the dolphin family. It is found in great shoals, generally consisting of two or three hundred animals, and often of a great many more, which are always under the guidance of a single leader. Wherever he goes they [132] will always follow, and they are such stupid creatures that if he swims into shallow water and casts himself ashore, they will all swim after him and fling themselves on the beach also. ”

“ I’m glad you got the biggest, old girl.” They exchanged a friendly smile.
A yell from Wally intimated that he had something on his hook, and with immense pride he flourished in the air a diminutive blackfish—so small that the Hermit proposed to use it for bait, a suggestion promptly declined by the captor, who hid his catch securely in the fork of two branches, before re-baiting his hook. Then Harry pulled out a fine perch, and immediately afterwards Norah caught a blackfish; and after that the fun waxed fast and furious, the fish biting splendidly, and all hands being kept busy. ”

“ Stranded pygmy killer whales can be clearly distinguished from both the false killer whale and the many-toothed blackfish. In addition to the differences discussed above, the following are key differences between the pygmy and false killer whales:
Pygmy killer whales can be distinguished from many-toothed blackfish on the basis of the second species' larger number of teeth. ”

“ The blackfish (Phocæna sp.) is a small toothed whale, not at all unlike a miniature cachalot, except that its head is rounded at the front, while its jaw is not long and straight, but bowed. It is as frolicsome as the porpoise, gamboling about in schools of from twenty to fifty or more, as if really delighted to be alive. Its average size is from ten to twenty feet long and seven or eight feet in girth; weight, from one to three tons. Blubber about three inches thick, while the head is almost all oil, so that a good rich specimen will make between one and two barrels of oil of medium quality. ”

“ Good practice for the men, an’ blackfish ile’s worth takin’. There ain’t no wind an’ we won’t lose ’nough time to count.”
“Stan’ by to lower away the sta’board boats,” roared the old whaleman.
Then, as the yards were swung and the schooner came to a standstill, the boats were lowered, the men tumbled in, and to the pull of the six long ash oars in each, they went racing towards the school of blackfish.
To the boys’ delight, they were allowed to go after the grampus, for they had always longed to go in one of the boats as it dashed across the waves after a whale. ”

“ The oil of the blackfish is obtained in precisely the same manner as that of the whale, of which it is a pocket edition. The blubber, nearly resembling pork-fat, was stripped off and taken in dories to town. I saw the men tossing it with their pitchforks on the shore, whence it was loaded into carts, and carried to the try-house on one of the wharves. Here it was heaped in a palpitating and by no means savory mass. Men were busily engaged in trimming off the superfluous flesh, or in slicing it, with great knives resembling shingle-froes, into pieces suitable for the try-pot ”

“ Porpoises, perhaps of this species, frequently enter the fresh waters of Pamlico Sound through the inlets southwest of Hatteras, and many species of marine porpoises make long journeys into the fresh waters of rivers.
291 CHAPTER XXV
THE BLACKFISH The blackfish, the most gregarious and one of the largest members of the porpoise family, is sometimes called the “pilot whale” because it blindly follows a leader and the herds can be driven almost like a flock of sheep. ”

“ They are approximately the same size as pygmy killer whales, but the white area around the genitals which extends up onto the side in pygmy killer whales may be lacking in many-toothed blackfish. This species has pointed flippers, while those of pygmy killer whales are rounded on the tips. Many-toothed blackfish also have a slightly more pointed snout. ”

“ While my companions were asleep, I went out with an old fisherman, and by breakfast time had captured 221 thirty bluefish, weighing about two pounds apiece. The manner of catching these is to tow for them with a long line, the bait being a piece of ivory attached to a strong hook. They are a very active and powerful fish, and when hooked make a great fuss, skipping and leaping out of the water.
At nine o’clock our party were at anchor on a reef about one mile off, and for the space of about two hours we hauled in the blackfish fast as possible, many of them weighing eight to ten pounds apiece. ”

“ By half-past six they had caught several blackfish and a sea-bass: it had by that time become very cloudy and windy, and was getting dark.
"I think we shall have to make the blackfish answer for breakfast," said Mr. ”

“ No dorsal fin. Pectoral fins very broad and upturned. The color is pure white in the adult, except for a very narrow band of brownish on the edges of the flukes and flippers. The young are entirely brownish.
Skull rather narrow and elongated. Eight to ten teeth in both jaws—cervical vertebræ all free. Vertebral formula: 315cervicals 7, dorsals 11, lumbars 9, caudals 23. Total, 50. Habitat: North Atlantic and North Pacific.
BLACKFISH, PILOT WHALE, CA’ING OR GRINDHVAL
Globicephalus melas (Traill) Form robust. Head large and very round. Dorsal fin thick and triangular. ”

“ They reach at least 16.5 feet (5.0 m) and can be identified on the beach by the position of the teeth near the middle of the lower jaw. Little is known of the species at sea. (Drawing by L. Winn.)
Figure 87.—A female North Sea beaked whale (16.5 feet [5.0 m] ) stranded in Hjertuika in 1957. (Photo courtesy of A. Jonsgard.)
[Pg 84]
KILLER WHALE (T)
Orcinus orca (Linnaeus 1758) Other Common Names
Blackfish (see also pilot whales, p. 91 and 94) , sword fish (Canada) , grampus (see p. 96) , whitefish (St. Vincent) , Espladon (Quebec) . ”

“ Keep a ray-fish always ready—it does not matter how stale he is—and on the same day on which you are going to sell your bass, or mullet, or cod, or whatever it may be, pull a few sharp spines, as clear as you can, out of this good ray. Then open the mouth of your languid fish and embolden the aspect of either eye by fetching it up from despondency with a skewer of proper length extended from one ball to the other. It is almost sure to drop out in the cooking; and even if it fails to do so, none will be the wiser, but take it for a provision of nature—as indeed it ought to be. ”

“ Why! they come to be fed! and such is the ferocious impatience of this aquatic menagerie, that we long to assist in quelling it; and so we dip our hand into the man's basket of frogs, and drop a few right over the swarm—and now the water is bubbling and lathering with the workings and plungings of these mad fish; and so large are they, so strong, so numerous, that, all angler as we are, we really felt unpleasantly, nor would we, after what we saw, have trusted hand or foot in the domain of such shark-like rapacity. ”

“ Black Bass are found widely distributed over the Atlantic slope. They are not particular in their diet, eating many kinds of food—fish, crawfish, moths, flies, frogs, and even rats and snakes. They can leap powerfully. It is said that the best time to take them is at night, or when rivers are high and muddy. There are two types, the large-mouth and the small-mouth. Bass may be caught by using artificial flies or minnows, or live minnows, small frogs, grasshoppers, or by the use of trolling spoon. ”

“ As teachers of patience [Pg 131] in fishing, black bass are at the head of the list. They are so whimsical that the angler never knows whether on a certain day they will take small live fish, worms, frogs, crickets, grasshoppers, crawfish or some other outlandish bait; and he soon learns that in the most favorable conditions of wind and weather they will frequently refuse to touch bait of any kind. In their intercourse with fishermen, especially those in the early stages of proficiency, they are the most aggravating and profanity-provoking animal that swims in fresh water. ”

“ The gill-rays are six and the fin-rays, as given by Dr. De Kay, are as follows, but I think liable to considerable variation.
D. 9.1.14; P. 18; V. 5; A. 3.12; C. 16-6/6.
Black Bass, belonging as they do to the perch family, have many of the habits and can be captured in the same manner as their congeners. But, as they are infinitely superior in flavor, they are equally so in game and sporting qualities. They will take minnows, shiners, grasshoppers, frogs, worms, or almost anything else that can be called a bait, and like all fish, prefer the live to the dead. ”

“ First with the tide would come perhaps a school ot small blue and silver gar-fish, their scarlet-tipped upper mandibles showing clear of the water; then a thick, compact battalion of short, dumpy grey mullet, eager to get up to the head of the lagoon to the fresh water which all of their kind love; then communities of half a dozen of grey and black-striped “black fish” would dart through to feed upon the green weed which grew on the inner side of the stone causeway. ”

“ Black bass is one of the most prolific varieties of our fresh-water fish. Their natural increase is so great and their growth so rapid, that it has never been an object to [256] fish culturists to attempt their artificial propagation. When the spawning season draws near, they select, guided by natural instinct, with great care for the purpose of propagation, certain portions of the river having a pebbly or gravelly bottom. From these they remove carefully all sediment, weeds, and sticks. ”

“ Others, like the Trunk Fishes, are nearly equal in all dimensions. The average form and the one which best suits our idea of a fish, is the Black Bass, or other fishes of similar pattern. To know the advantages of these forms one must study the fishes in their native element. The peculiar forms which many species take are the most noticeable in those found in the tropics. The struggle for existence there is the most severe, and it seems as if each species had labored to take on some peculiar form which would assist most in its preservation. In this respect color also plays an important factor. ”

“ In the streams of the Black Hills you will not find more than fifteen species, and not more than one or two, if any, will be the same as in either of the other two catches. There are none of the spiny-rayed fishes in the Black Hills, and no trout, though the streams seem in every way well suited for them. The fishes of the Black Hills consist of two catfishes, four suckers, eight minnows, and one member of the cod family. Why are there no spiny-rayed fishes? If you examine a map you will find that the Black Hills is an isolated region, about seventy-five by one hundred miles in extent. ”

“ The coloring of most fish so that they cannot readily be seen by looking down into the water because of the blackness of their backs, is highly protective. And the fact is more apparent when we note that an enemy looking at the same fish from below is hindered in discovery because the white under parts of the fish are hard to distinguish against the light of the sky above. ”

“ To carry this over the rocks at a run was entirely impossible (although I was still pretty good in my legs) , but to run away without it was a great deal more impossible for a man who had caught the fish himself; and beside the fish in the basket, there must have been more than two hundredweight of bass that would not go into it. Three hundred and a half in all was what I set it down at, taking no heed of prawns and lobsters; and with any luck in selling, it must turn two guineas. ”

“ The black-bass is far less destructive to fish life than any of the fishes mentioned; on the contrary, it suffers the most in a mixed community of fishes, and is the first to disappear. There are small lakes in Canada and Michigan where the brook-trout and black-bass have coexisted from time immemorial without jeopardy to the trout. There are small lakes in Wisconsin where black-bass and cisco, with other species, have coexisted for all time ”

“ The black bass loves bright, pure, lively water, not as cold as the trout streams of our spring-producing hills and mountains, but free from foul matters held suspended [257] in it, and with motion either of current or from the winds. It deposits its eggs on rocky or pebbly ledges. The parents guard and protect their nests till the young are hatched, and even watch over the latter till they can take care of themselves. The fish generally selected for transfer are from one to three years old, measuring from three to twelve inches in length. ”