Marine fish

“ Fish that are pelagic during part of their lives, such as salmon and herring, and forage fish like smelt, capelin, and sand lance, are vulnerable to greater predation by a wider variety of marine birds than are bottom-dwelling demersal fish, such as pollock, cod, sole, ocean perch, and halibut, as well as king and snow crabs. Some species that live on the bottom as adults have pelagic stages during which they are vulnerable to predation by marine birds. ”

“ The Soft-finned Fishes are, in general, inferior to the Spinous-finned in the degree of development of those essential characteristics which distinguish a fish from other vertebrate animals they are a step lower in the scale of organic perfection. The great majority of fresh-water fishes are found here, though associated with many that are exclusively marine. A considerable proportion of the species are ground-feeders; fishes which have the powers of swimming feebly developed, and are compelled to grovel on the mud at the bottom, and lie in wait for passing prey. ”

“ In our discussion, we mainly consider predation by birds on commercial fish and competition between birds and commercial fish for food. The extent of these interactions determines the potential for birds and fish to influence each other's abundance. The extent of the interactions also determines the impact of man's commercial harvest of fish on the abundance of birds or of the bird's harvest on the abundance of fish.
The extent of the interaction between marine birds and commercial fish depends on the abundance, distribution, feeding habits, and life history of the fish species of concern. ”

“ If we are walking on a sea-beach to-day, we do not look for animals that haunt the forests or roam over the open plains, or for those that live in sheltered valleys or in inland regions or on mountain-heights. We look for Shells, for Mussels and Barnacles, for Crabs, for Shrimps, for Marine Worms, for Star-Fishes and Sea-Urchins, and we may find here and there a fish stranded on the sand or tangled in the sea-weed. ”

“ The change in the diet of fishes with growth results in competition with a changing variety of marine birds. For example, deep-diving birds may replace surface feeders as the major bird competitors of the Pacific cod and pollock as these fish increase in size and seek deeper waters. ”

“ Some of the marine animals obtained from our shores feed entirely on the minute and invisible organisms that are always present in the sea water, and others subsist principally on certain of the weeds. Many, however, of a more predaceous disposition, capture and devour living prey, while some, and more especially the crustaceans, are partial to carrion. If, therefore, the observer desires to study the ways in which the various creatures secure and devour their food, he should introduce into his aquaria live marine worms and other small animals, and also small pieces of fish or flesh. ”

“ In addition to this natural ruse, or, rather, as a supplement to it, the angler-fish is said purposely to stir up the sand, so as to dislodge the marine worms or other creatures which dwell there, which then float about in the water, so that they play the same part that ground-bait does when thrown in around the float. The discoloured water, full of living creatures or inorganic particles, brings numbers of fish there, to feed on them, whilst the silvery filament swaying and dancing in the middle of the cloud, becomes to each one the more particular attraction. ”

“ This is evidently the commencement of a change in a fish’s habits, and, indeed, not a few of such fishes have actually taken up their permanent residence in fresh waters (as species of Ambassis, Apogon Dules, Therapon, Sciæna, Blennius, Gobius, Atherina, Mugil, Myxus, Hemirhamphus, Clupea, Anguilla, Tetrodon, Trygon) : all forms originally marine.
On the other hand, we find fishes belonging to freshwater genera descending rivers and sojourning in the sea for a more or less limited period ”

“ The extent to which a given fish species is fed upon by or is in competition with marine birds for food is determined by the life history of the fish. Most pelagic and some demersal fish and shellfish are more subject to predation by pursuit diving birds than by birds restricted to the near-surface waters. ”

“ In the marine profound there are fishes in abundant variety that exist at depths of several miles, and perhaps also in its nethermost and as yet unknown deeps. Many of these fish seem to be limited to certain oceanic strata to which their organization may be specially adapted and to no other. From time immemorial finny creatures of soft and fluffy substance and distorted shape have been found floating, sometimes dead, sometimes barely living, upon the surface of the sea ”

“ Amounts of fish offal from offshore trawlers, drift-netters, and longline fishing boats have increased in recent years, and some seabirds, particularly kittiwakes, fulmars, and gannets make use of this new and readily available food source. Thus, although the use of fishing gear is a serious threat to seabird survival, fish waste from the same boats provides an abundant food supply for the more pelagic species. ”

“ When near the coast they conceal themselves between corals, stones, or fucus, holding on to the ground by means of their arm-like pectoral fins. Their coloration is so similar to their surroundings that it is hardly possible to distinguish the fish from a stone or coral overgrown with vegetation. Their way of attracting and seizing their prey is evidently the same as in the other fishes of this family. The extraordinary range of some of the species which inhabit the Atlantic as well as the Indo-Pacific Oceans, is the consequence of their habit of attaching themselves to floating objects. ”

“ It seems to know perfectly well, however, that fishes are very inquisitive creatures, and that they are always greatly attracted by any object that glitters. So when it feels hungry it lies down at the bottom of the sea, stirs the mud gently up with its side fins, so as to conceal itself from view, and dangles the glittering spine up and down in front of its open mouth. Before very long some passing fish is sure to come swimming up to see what this strange object can possibly be; and then the angler just gives one snap with its great jaws, and that fish is seen no more. ”

“ The fins are small—so small as to appear almost rudimentary—yet the fish swims, or rather darts, along the bottom with amazing rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few feet from the shore, where, concealed in the sand, they can dart out upon and seize their prey in their enormous "gripsack" mouths. The approach of a boat or a person walking along the sand will cause them to at once speed like lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand and mud which is washed off their backs in their flight. ”

“ Those fresh-water fishes that do not wander away, go to the well-aired spots in their neighborhood to spawn—to the shore-waters, the wet meadows, or the junctions of rivers, or to the tributary streams of the lakes in which they live. Those salt-water fish which live at the bottom likewise go to the waters near the shores, where the flats and the meadows swarm during the spring with their young. The eggs of the cod and mackerel are buoyed upon the surface of the water, where the winds blow constantly over them. ”

“ Here will be found hydroids, sea-anemones, starfishes, sea-urchins, barnacles, mussels. In the shallow water, crabs and shrimps are crawling along the sandy bottom or are lying concealed in the mud, while schools of little fishes scoot across the pool. If a fine silk net is drawn through the water and then emptied into a glass dish a whole new world of creatures will be revealed—jellyfishes, ctenophores, hydroids, eggs of fish, tiny copepods, the larvae or young of sea-urchins, starfishes, or oysters. ”

“ The other class of fisheries referred to, for sedentary animals 697 connected with the bottom, such as oysters, pearl-oysters, and coral, which are found in shallow water, as a rule, and usually near the coast, have always been considered as on a different footing from fisheries for floating fish. They may be very valuable, are generally restricted in extent, and are admittedly capable of being exhausted or destroyed; and they are looked upon rather as belonging to the soil or bed of the sea than to the sea itself. ”

“ The fishes of both the sea and fresh waters are numerous and valuable. Peculiar classes of sea-fish are the rose-fish, smelts, surf-fish, herrings, rock-trout, and various important food-fishes of the cod family. ”

“ Fishes are found in practically every ocean, lake and river in the world, with a few notable exceptions, such as the Dead Sea, in which the concentration of salt is too high. They appear to exist at all depths of water, and have been found in the sea as deep down as 2,720 fathoms. Fish living at this depth generally possess enormous mouths, long, attenuated, soft bodies, and are equipped with highly developed phosphorescent organs. ”

“ Therefore to supply millions of animals with food, and yet not depopulate the watery realms, the issue produced by some of their species is almost incredible. The spawn is not by scores, but by millions: and by this amazing expedient, constant reparation is made proportionable to the immense havoc.
As the different species of fishes are designed to occupy the waters, and range to and fro in that element, so they are wonderfully formed for that purpose. The chief instruments of the motion of a fish are the fins, which in some fishes are more numerous than in others. ”

“ Realms of Distribution of Fresh-water Fishes.—If we consider the fresh-water fishes alone we may divide the land areas of the earth into districts and zones not differing fundamentally with those marked out for mammals and birds. The river basin, bounded by its shores and the sea at its mouth, shows many resemblances, from the point of view of a fish, to an island considered as the home of an animal. It is evident that with fishes the differences in latitude outweigh those of continental areas, and a primary division into Old World and New World would not be tenable. ”

“ The fishes of the sea, in their kingdom beneath the waters, have thus their highways and byways, as well as the animals upon the land, and are always to be found congregated where their great food-bearers, the currents, make their deposits. Animalculæ, infusoria, small fishes, minute crustacea, and shell-fish found on the algæ, or floating sea-weed, sea-nettles, and other food, are produced in the more calm latitudes, where the waters are comparatively still, taken up by the currents, and transported to the more congenial feeding-grounds of the whales, and other fishes. ”

“ Excluding all the varied species of mammals that form such an immense portion of the sea-folk, it may roughly be said that the majority of deep-sea fish belong to the mackerel family, or Scombridæ. They possess, in an exaggerated form, all the characteristics of that well-known edible fish that occasionally gluts our markets and gladdens the hearts of our fishermen. ”

“ About six species are known, each of which is probably distributed over all the tropical and sub-tropical seas. Strictly pelagic in their habits, they are most powerful swimmers; they congregate in shoals, and pursue unceasingly the Flying-Fish, which try to escape their enemies by long flying leaps. They attain to a length of six feet, and are eagerly caught by sailors on account of their well-flavoured flesh. The beauty of their, unfortunately fugitive, colours has ever been a subject of admiration. ”

“ Our fishermen unanimously affirm, and without the least variation in their accounts, that when they row out several miles to sea, particularly in the hot summer days, and by their situation (which they know by taking a view of different points of land) expect to find eighty or a hundred fathoms of water, it often happens that they do not find above twenty or thirty, and sometimes less. At these places they generally find the greatest plenty of fish, especially cod and ling. Their lines, they say, are no sooner out than they may draw them up with the hooks all full of fish. ”

“ At present a flock of thirteen is to be seen diving in the deep water surrounding the reef. Scorning the crustaceans, molluscs, and other ground game of the eiders and longtails, these birds subsist entirely upon fish, in pursuit of which they are extremely dexterous. The long sharp-pointed bill is excellently adapted for securing their prey, the extremity of the upper mandible curving over the lower in a sharp hook, the efficiency of which I once saw forcibly demonstrated. ”

“ The fishes in these seas fight like hell, and be always a-lashing the surface with their fins and tails, seemingly. Can’t live and let live by the looks of it. A [137] flying-fish do put me in mind of myself, for he’s always moving on. If he bides in the sea, barracudas and other chaps go for him, and when he comes out for a sail in the air, the birds are after him. Then the swordfish go for the porpoises, and the sharks go for everything. ”

“ The sea is very well stocked with fish of divers sorts, namely mullet, bass, bream, snook, mackerel, parracoots, garfish, ten-pounders, scuttle-fish, stingrays, whiprays, rasperages, cockle-merchants, or oyster-crackers, cavallies, conger-eels, rock-fish, dog-fish, etc. ”

“ BOY SCOUT NATURE LORE TO BE FOUND IN THE
HICKORY RIDGE BOY SCOUT SERIES.
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FISHES OF THE UNITED STATES
Fish are vertebrate animals living in water and having, instead of legs, fins which are adapted to rapid movement in the water. They breathe through gills instead of lungs.
The principal order of fish is known as the Teleostei or bony fishes. Other orders are the Elasmobranchii or fishes without a bony skeleton, Ganoidei, and a small order called the Holocephali. Fishing since the earliest recorded times has always been an industry as well as a sport with mankind. ”