On the influence of anchor ice in relation to fish offal and the Newfoundland fisheries [microform]

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i!flS^i'''.v|,.p^4V

ON THE INFLUENOiT

IN

Relation to Fish Oflfal

AND THB

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NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES i

By henry Y. hind.

1877.

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Ox\ THE INFLUENCE

\

OF

A-isTCnoie/ lOE

IN

REUTIOiN TO FISH OFFAL

AXD THE

NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES :

By henry Y. HINI>, M. A.

ST. JOHNS, NEWFOUNDLAND.

187T.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF ANCHOll ICE

IN

RELATION TO FISH OFFAL

AND THE

NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES.

PART 11.

Contents.

I. The Rektive Quantity of Oxygen required by Fishes

Old and Young.

II. The Source of the Food of the Cod.
in. The Ice Drift,

IV. Food of Cod in Northern Seas.

V. Distribution ot Fish Ova by the Ice Drift.

w

ON THE INFLUENCE OF ANCHOR ICE

IN

KEIATION TO FISH OFFAL

AND THE

NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES.

PART II.

I. THE RELATIVE QUANTITY OF OXYGEX
REQUIRED BY FISHES, OLD AND YOUNG.

ASSUMING that the anilysij of the gases contained in sea
water, by Mr. Lant Carpenter* represents their average
quantities and composition in the Atlantic Ocean, under cir^
Glial stances which permit of perfect sBration, we have the
means for obtaining a correct view of the relative consurap-

^ *Appeudix A. in Sir Wyville's Thomson's "Depths of the Sea."—
Sutnmary of results of the examination of samples of sea water taken
at the surface and at various depths. By William Xjant Carpenter,
B.A., B. Sc. p. 502.

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tion of cxygen by marine life, and the sources of the unfailing
supply of the life-sustaining gas.

Different species of fish of the same weight require
about the same quantities of oxygen to support respiration,
but of the same species, the older individuals require mucii
less than the younger in proportion to their weight. A cod-
lish of 20lbs. weight requires very much less oxygen than
the same weight of young fish, and the quantity required by
the individual young is out of all proporti'/U to the quantity
requned by old fifh. This curious and important fact Arises
fn m the rc-spir-atoiy process being much moie active in yourg
fish than in old individuals, and its discovery and announce-
ment, together wnth other important discoveries in relation
to fish life, are due to M. Quinquand, who some time since
brought ihc subject before the Academy of Sciences in Paris,

M, Quinquand has also ascertained the relation which
exists between fishes and man, as to quantity of oxygen
consumed in respiratic n. We are thus belter able to com-
prehend the great value of thoroughl) aerated waters to young
fish, and the diaiacler of the deleterious effects likely to le
produced by fish offiil, and indeed any substance which upon
decomposition consumes the oxygen of sea, — or river water
— necestary for the respiration of very young and small fishes,
such as sawdust from mills, or vegetable or animal refuse of
any kind.

We can filso comprehend the vast importance of Avinds
and currents in aerating the ocean, and of a rapid flow in
rivers in terating their waters.

According to Mr. Lant Carpenter, the surface water of
the ocean contains a greater quantity of oxygen and a less
quantity of carbonic acid after a strong wind.

In order to show that young and small fish, vvhose
respiration is very active, consume ccnsideiably more oxygen
than old or large fish in proportion to their weight, the

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iijusti aliens supplied by M. Quinquand may be instanced.

Comparing tbe reppiiatoiy uqiiircmenls of the perch
^^iih tliose of man as a standard, we have tlie following
6\iggcstive proportions ;

A perch Weighing ever one pound has a respiratory
ao'iivity one-mnih as great as a man in proportion to its
weight. A perch weighing one thiid of a pound consumes
i IV o-nint hs ^s, m\xc\\ ( xygcn as a mnn. A young perch not
(ine-sixtcenth of a poui;d in weight consumes one half as
much oxygen as a man in picpoiticn to weight of living
matter.

Applying these relative quantities to the codfish, the
relation stands as below : —

A numbei- of codfish each weighing 31bs., and together
equal in weight to a 1-ull-groAvn man, consume, say, only one
twentieth as much oxygm in respiration as the man. A
larger number of smaller codfifch of one pound each, but of
the same {iggrcgate weight as the man, ccnsume cne fifth as
much OX) gen ; but a nvrmber of cod fry equal in aggregate
weight to tie man c( nsume half as much oxygen. 'Iheso
remarliable differences in respiratory activity, and consequently
in die demand for the supply of oxygen, i?how how important
it is for lish fiy and young fish to have an abundant end
constant supply of the vital gas.

M. Quir.quand has pointed rut another und equally
imp(rtant fact ccnnected with the refpiratory piocess of
young fish. 'Jhe young of mr-hnalhirg animals resist
asphyxia or suffoeatien by deprivation of oxygen, much moie
vigorously than adults, but the young oi Jish respiring by
means of gills, seem to sutler much more rapidly than adults
when the proper supply of oxygen diminishes. From these
considerali(ns it follows, that as young fish and fish fry visit
during the summer the coastal and shoal waters, and are
probably hatched in them, the fish offal is thrown into the
sea at the precise spot where it is likely to be most prejudicial

to young fish life. It also fullows that sea watei which will
suppsrt the life of fish, one, two an;l in:n'Q p:)unds in weight,
will deitroy tiie life of youji^ fry. Sjulpins n ad flatfish,
which abound neir the sttige heads in 8UiTi,n3r, miy live and
thrive ia water wholly unfit for the respiration of yonng fish,
which require abundance of oxygen. Hence on cjd banks,
and on all fishing grounds where fish oflFil is thrown over-
board, large fish, an J fish over one or two poun Is weight
ma^ not be injured by it, yet small fish and fish fry, whose
respiratory [ ocesses are cntiriily active, will be destroyed,
especially during calms.

Marine life, without red blood corpusoulesy and of lower
respiratory organization than young fish, will not be injured
by water deprived of oxygen by decomposing fi^h off'al, to an
extent sufficient to destroy young fish life. In brief, all of
M. Qainquand's experiments and observations point to the
positive necessity for preserving in a state of purity those
waters in which fish spawn is hatched, and "n. which youug
fish disport themselves.

Valuable information on the necessity for a continuous
supply of oxygen for young fish is to be found in the " Report
on the Progress of Pisciculture in Russia," given at page 493
of Commissioner Baird's Report for 1872 and 1873. M.
Theodore Soudakevicz states in this report, that ''if the water
contains less oxygen than is required to oxidize the blood, the
gills change their lamelleo,- aiid their fringes agglutinate,
decompose, are covered with parasiies, and the want of oxygen
necessarily brings abou^ the d^ath of the fish.."

&

II. THE SOURCE OF THE FOOD OF THE COD

IN the " Notes on the Northern Labrador Fishing
Grounds" I have briefly referred to the unfailing sui);->ly
of Arctic food, brought dovyn by ice and accumulated on.
the continuous range of JJanka which extend from Cape Aillik
to C^pe Chudleigh.

Il may be well to describe with some detail the character
of tho^ Arctic waters as food producers, for it is a popular
impression that the cold of the Arctic Seas is prejudicial t >
life. In trdch the Arctic waters and the great currents
flowin.Tfrom them, are in many places a living mass, a vast
ocean of living slime, and the all-peivading. life which exiits
there alix)rd& the true solution of the problem which has stt
often presented itself to tliose engaged in theGreatFisIierios,
where the food comes from which gives siistenancQ to the
countless nriiilicms of fish whixjh swann on the Labrador, on
the coast of Newfoundland, and in Dominion anxl Unitod
States' waters, or wlierever the Arctic Current exerts an active
influence.

Professor Nordenskiold reminds us, in an accnint of
" an Expedition to Greenland in 1870," that Hudson and
other veteran mariners of the Arctic Seas mention the variety
of colours characterizing the water in certai'i pares of the
Polar Sea, which are frequently so shar[)ly distinguished that
a ship may sail with one side in blue water, and the olhcr in
greyish -green water.

It was at first sapposed that those colours were indicative
of different currents — the green of the Arctic and the bluo
of the Gulf-stream, Later, Sc^resby afTirmod that tin3
phenomena arose from the presence of innumerable organisms
in the water. Subsequently Dr, Brown, during a voyage

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made by him as surgeon in a whaler, continued ihe observa-*
tions, and more recently Professor Nordenskiold himself.

The sea water in the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen he
describes as marked by two sharply distinguished colours,
greenish grey and fine indigo-blue,

In the Greenland'Seas there is water with a very decided
tinpe of brown. The grey^green water is generally met with
in the neighbourhood of ice ; the blue where the water is free
from ice ; the brown, as far as Professor Nordenskicild's
observations go, chiefly in that part of Davis' Straits which is
situated in fmnt of " Fiskernaes " (Lat, 63*' 1', Long. 50° 1')
on the Greenland coast opposite the 'mouth of Hudson's
Straits,

When specimens of the water are taken up in an un<i
coloured glass, it appears perfectly clear and colourless, nor
can the unassisted eye discover any organisms to account for
the colour. But if a fine insect-net be towed behind the
ship, it will soon become covered with a film of green in
the green water, and with a film of brown in the bT^own
water. These films are of organic origin. Itisalivingblime,
and where it abounds there are also to be found swarms of
minute crustaceans which feed on the slime, and in their
turn become the food of larger animals.

Dr. Brown shows that the presence of this slime spread
over a hundred thousand square miles, is a condition necessary
for the subsistence, not only of the swarms of birds that
frequent the Northern Seas, but of the large marine animalt,
even up to the giant whale.

In Southern Seas the " slime of the ocean " is equally
abundant. On the 4lh February, 1874, in lat. 52.29 south,
long, 71.80 east. Sir Wyville 'ihomson found this " slime "
a little to the north of the Heard Islands. The tow net
which was diagging a few fathoms below the surface, came
up nearly filled with a pale yellow gelatinous mass, which

was found to consist entirely of Diatoms, and of the same
species as were found at the bottom. Sir Wyville Thomson
expresses surprise that the diatoms on the surface did not
appear to be in large numbers over what he has termed the
diatom ooze, as in some other localities, where he found them
near the surface and beyond or south of the diatom ooze belt j
but he explains their apparent absence by stating that " this
may perhaps be accounted for by our not having struck their
belt of depth with the tow-net, or it is possible, &c." * The
'* belt of depth " at which these minute but infinitely
numerous organisms live appears ta vary with changes in the
pressure of the atmosphere and the temperatu:e. But the
myriads of minute crustaceans which feed on the "slime" rise
&nd fall with it. !Now they may be at the surface, in an hout^
a fathom below, and in a day the 2one of life may be five
fathoms below the surface, and with it the minute crustaceans
and the hosts of other marine animals which prey on these.
Hence it is that the " herring bait,'' the " mackerel bait,'* the
•* red, " "yellow " and *' black herring meat" of the Nor*
wegian fif:heimen, are found at variable depths, following
their food, and thus leading the herribg to dijQeretit zones
below the surface of the ocean, all of trhich may be comprised
within a score of fathoms. These facts are the key to
m ysteries which have hitherto shrouded the movements of
the herring. But this "blime of the ocean" appears to lire
most abundantly in the coldest water and in the neighbour-
hood of ice. how is it, then, brought on to the Labrador in
Bucb an unfailing stream as indirectly to afibrd en endless
supply of food to the cod en the Labrador banks 1 The
answer to this question leads at once to a brief description of
the ice drift.

• « Nature," December 10th, 1874.

iincoceciMi

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B

ni. THE ICE DRIFT.

THIS is one of the grandest phenomena on the face of the
globe. It is so vast, so uniform and so unceasing, that,
with the exception of the Gulf-stream, from .its initiation to
its close, nothing on earth can compare with it.

Coming from the Spitzbergen Seas, an^l hugging the
coast of East Greenland, the Polar ice»ladened current creeps
south westerly past IceJiuid, past Greenland, and the known
east coast, towards Cape Farewell. Its rate of progression is
about four milei a-day, tha breadth nf the ice-burdened,
stream about 200 miles. After Cape Farewell, the most
southern part of Greenland is reached, the grand procession
of ice-bergs and ice-floes turns slowly to the west, then in a
wide curve to the north-west and towards Divis' » Straits .
Augmented by additions from Western Greenland coming
down Baffins Bay, the mighty stream begins to turn to the
westward in the life-teeming saas off Fiskernoe?, and
approaches Frobisher Bay, and Hudson's Straits. Here it
receives fresh accessions of bergs and floes, th3 united armies
trending southerly, then south-easterly towards the Labrador,
and on the banks off this coast countless thousands ground,
bringing with them their "slirae." Others drift on past
the Newfoundland coast until they are lost in the Gulf-
stream, but paving the bottom of the onem with the skeletons
of the Diatoms they have brought from the north. Recent
high authority confirms the view of this course of the
northern ice stream advanced some years since by Colding-,
and others. Admiral E. Irmin^^ec, of the Danisli Navy,
in a reojnt p.^jr on "the Arctic Carreat around

Greenland* adopts the generally received conclusion that the
current from the ocean around Spitzbergen which carries the
icebergs and floes after it, has passed along the east coast
of Greenland, turns westward and northward around Cape
Farewell, without detaching any branch to the south-westward
directly towards the Banks of Newfoundland. The current
afterwards runs northward along the south-west coast of
Greenland, until about latitude 64 degrees north, and at times
even as far up as 67 degrees. Afterwards turning westward,
it unites with the current coming from Baffin's and Hudson's
Bays, running to the southward on the western side of Davis'
Straits, along the coast of Labrador.f V, <

It is thus that the " slime " which accompanies the ice-
bergs and ice floes of the Arctic, accumulates on the Banks
of Northern I^abrador, and renders the existence possible
there of all those forms of marine life, — from the diatom
to the minute crustacean — from the minute crustacean to the
prawn, starfish and crab, together with molluscous aniraali
in vast profusion, — which contribute to the support of the
gieat schools of cod whioh also find their home there.

• Vide— A selection of papers on Arctic Geography and Ethnology,
reprinted and presented to the Arctic Expedition of 1875, by the
President, Council and Fellows of the Royal Q-aographioal Society,
— 'Nature,' June 10th, 1875. . . ,

t • Nature,' June 10th, 1875.

10

.V. xOOD OF THE COD IN NORTHERN SEAS.

)URING my visit to the Labrador last summer I was
rather surprised to find that the Newfoundland fisher-
men appeared to place entire reliance upon four kinds of
ait for cod, namely, the caplin, the squid, the herring and
'he launce. I gathered from conversation with many of them,
that the opinion pievailed that the cod were nourished
almost exclusively upon this food, and that where there were
,10 caplin, &c., there would be no " fish," as the cod is popularly
termed. It may therefore not be out of place to enumerate
some of the opinions of prominent naturalists on this very
important subject.

Sir "Wyville Thomson tells us in that most instructive
and interesting work "The depths of the Sea," that the
Faroe Banks (lat. 61. long. 9°) are frequented during the
i&hing season by numerous English and Foreign fishing
ressels, whose chief pursuit is t'le cod. The^e banks are
about ICO miles north-west of Scotland. The cod abound on
the banks and are chiefly of large size. The depth of water
varies from 46 to 100 fathoms. *' 'J he banks swarm with the
common brittle star (ophiothrix fragilis)^ with the Norway
lobster {nejphrojps novvegicas)^ large spider crabs, several
species of the genus galaihea, and many of the genus cramgon
(fchrimp). So ample a supply of their favourite food readily

cconnts for the ahvndance and eaccllence of the cod and

iiig on the Banks'^ *

Passing the Davis* Straits and the coast of Greenland,
)r. Robert Brown states that " the invertebrata of Uieco Bay

• " The Depths of the 8e8," page 60.

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lat. 69) are numerous, mollusca echionuermata, cmstacea,
polyzoa, nydrozoa, &c., abounding, though to nothing like the
extent the lower forms of animal life swarm on the RiskoU
cod-banke." *

Dr. Sutherland f states that the limits of the Riskoll
'ank can be defined almost at all times by the clusters and
roups of small icebergs that take ground upon it, and this
ank ** like other banks of a similar character but less
xtensive on the same coast, is exceedingly fertile in schools
f codfish and halibut which frequent it in the months of
lay, June, July and August."

This description of the icebergs on the Riskoll cod bank
pplies exactly to the banks off" the coast of Northern
Labrador, and the fact that the cod are so abundant there,
opposite as it were to the Labrador, (tht; Torsks Bank) during
the months of May, June, July and August supplies a potent
argument against an impression quite common among
Newfoundland fishermen respecting the supposed extensive
migrations of the schools of cod. Indeed cod of large
size may be simultaneously caught on the Newfoundland
coasts, the Labrador, the west side of Davis Straits* and the
east side or Greenland coasts of the same Straits. Richardson
in his * Fauna Bar eali Americana,' page 243, quotes Davis'
description of his run across the entrance of Hudson's Straits
from latitude 67 degrees to 67 degrees on the Labrador coast
as illustrating the abundance of the cod in those waters.
Davis says " laefore the bait was changed we took more than
forty great cods, the fish wimming so abundantly thick about
our baric as is incredible to be reported.'*

* Geological Magazine — Feb., 1876.

t Proceedings of the Geological Society— London, 1863.

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12

V. DISTRIBUTION OF FISH OVA BY THE ICE

DRIFT.

IT will not escape notice that the same ice drift whicli
brings the " slime " and the mjrriads of crustaceans must
also carry with it minute codfish spawn. The never-failing
stream of bergs and floes sailing so grandly past the numerous
cod banks on the Greenland coast, and crossing with semi-
circular sweep to the American side of Davis Straits and
then to the Labrador, can scarcely fail to convoy innumerable
cod ova, together with the original diatom source of the food
of young fish, and of adults after multitudinous transform-
ations.

Cod ova appears to find the coldest surface water most
suitable for their development, for the spawn is shed during
the coldest months of the year in those waters where ice
does not prevail to ensure the requisite degree of coldness.
On the coast of Nova Scotia in October.* On the well-
known George's Bank off New England, in February and
March.f In November and December in the Bay of Fundy.$
Probably, however, the season of each local school is
determinpd to a greater or less extent by the coldest mean
temperature of the surface water near its habitat — a home, as
long as new ice does not interfere. Every drop of surface sea
water as it cools descends, and in the fall of the year the
surface water is the warmest, the coldest stratum being at the
bottom. This as is well known is not the case with fresh
water, below a temperature of forty degrees.

* Revd. T. Ambrose — " Some observations on the Fishing Grounds
and Fish of St. Margaret's Bay," N. S. Trans. N. 8. Inst. Nut. Sci.
1866.

t T. F. Whiteavos— Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VII.

X Ibid.

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X8

If records of the spawning periods throughout the entire
area of the North Amarican Cod Fisheries were collated, it
would be found that this fish spawns all the year round J
Where there is no great ice drift, such as has been described,
to cool the surface water in summer, the periods of shedding
and liatching of spawn are adjusted to accommodate them-
selves to the temperature of the coastal waters, or the
temperature of banks and shoals.

The coasts of Nov^ Scotia swarm with cod fry in the fall
at the period when ice has formed, and is farming, on the
Labrador and parts of the Newfoundland G^ast, and it must
be borne in mind that there is a wide distiftction between the
spawning of inshore cod and bank cod,

"With regard to fresh water fish eggs and embryo it
appears that within certain limits " the higher the tempera*^
ture of the water in which eggs are placed the more rapidly
the embryo fish develops within the egg and the sooner it
escapes from its enclosure in the shell." (Milner — U, S.
Fishing reports, Spencer F. Baird, Commissioner.)

The observations of Sars h ave shown, as already stated,
that codfish spawn floats during the greater p:<rt, if not the
whole of the period of its development, but we do not know
the duration of that period in different waters and climites.
We are quite justified in supposing that ova may be shed and
hatched throughout the entire length and period of the Great
Ice Drift, the ova being derived trom schools of fish which
haunt the banks and shoals past which the drift is for ever
stealing. We know too, that the young fish would be hatched
during the short summer in a sea of food most suitable for
them, and in tbis beautiful compensating arrangement we
can discern provision for a continuous supply — literally a
stream — of ova and young fish, drifting towards our coast to
assist in replacing the three hundred million fish which are
annually taken from North American waters by fisherman of
all nations. This living but disjointed stream of life, like
tiaks in a chain, which accompanies the icebergs, as^i^ts too

14

i n replacing the countless thousands of J^oiing fry which aro
poiscned by the fish ofFal in the coastal waters. But there
is a danger in store for the ova which may thus drift on to
Newfoundland shores, and also for the ova of local schools of
fish. The winter months being the period during which
many schools spawn, this time may also be the season on
parts of the Newfoundland Coast, or rather adjacent to it,
and much of the spawn may be taken under the fringe of
coast ice by tidal currents. In favourable situations the
• process of development goes on uninterruptedly, butaccording
to the observations of Dr. Kunson,* oxygen is necessary for
the development of the ovum, and if oxygen be absent from
the water in which the ova are suspended, death ensues.
This condition, as already shown, exists over wide areas
beneath the ice in the neighbourhood of fish stages. The
offal consumes the oxygen by its slow decomposition, and it
cannot be replaced under the icy covering, until the ice
breaks up in the springer during storms, but meanwhile life
in the ovum is destroyed.

According to the views here presented, some of the ovn
supplied by the cod shoals \>hose habitat is the Forske Bank,
off Sukkertoppcn, and banks lying south of those celebrated
codgiounds on the coast of Greenland, floats with the ice-
ladened stream towards Cumberland Sound and Frobisher
Bay, and is hatched on its journey, the young fish fry finding
a new home in mid ocean or on the western coast of Davids
Straits, Some of the ova from the schools described by
Davis on that coast, floats with the ice stream in the track
•Davis followed towards the Labrador, and is hatched, it may
be, near Cape Ghudleigh. Some of the ova from the Cape
Chudleigh schools,— and these are numercuF, — float with the
iceberg stream along the coast of Labrador and are hatched
on the Southern Labrador. Southern Labrador fish supply
ova which is carried by the same unfailing ice stream partly
into thc^Gulf and partly along the north-east coast of New-

♦ W. H. -Ran60D,-M.D.'—r<Wc Journal of Anatomy and Physiology,
Vol. I.

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15

foundland towards the Gri^rtd Banks^ and so on, as far as the
icebergs travel, and cool the surface water sufficiently to
admit of the proper development of the ova. It may be that
this drift o spawn supplies an explanation of a statement
'made to me last summer that the couiisii about Cape Chud*
leigh are largely nourished during the short summer season
by feeding upon the younjj of their awn species. One would
suppose, that if no other saurce of young cod existed there
but the supply naturally furnished by local schools, the
result would ultimately be extermination, notwithstanding
the wonderful fecundity of the cod. The observation, if
correct, suggests the use of ycung red as bait in seas where
bait to which the fishermen are accustomed, is supposed to be
difficult to procure. But the questions involved in the term
* bait ' are too numerous and comprehensive to be adverted to
here, and it will suffice to say that what is *bait' in one
season is not bait in the fisherman's acceptation of the term in
another season. A codfish would turn from a squid in May or
October, which he would seize with avidity in July, and the
shell fish which form a considerable portion of his food, and
which are used as bait in Europe, do not appear to have
attracied attention here.

The conclusions which flow from the foregoing brief
exposition of certain ice phenomena on the coasts of Labrador
End Newfoundland in relation to the fisheries, appear to
justify the opinion that although considerable apparent
diminution has taken place during late years in the yield
of the shore fisheries, there is no ground for the supposition
that the fisheries generally are failing, or that the resources
of the seas which wash these shores have been taxed beyond
tbeir powers of production, or that by judicious caution,
easily exercised, the inshore fisheries may not become as
prolific as formerly. The means for reproduction are on a
scale so grand and inexhaustible, the fields from which
supplies are drawn to nourish the sdhools of fish are so vast
in their extent and so far beyond the power of man to injure
or diminish, that the one care appears to be thrown upon
tim, to .protect from usieless destruction that which i&

J^

incessantly brought within his reach. The Northern
Labrador fishing grounds offer a new and wide field for
industry, with resources and advantages far greater than have
hitherto been ascribed to them.

Their occupation will afford time for the recuperation of
other fields nearer home, whidb require rest after yielding their
treasures abundantly for generations, and at the same time,
^protection from indiscreet and unnecessary pollution, which
in the long run of years has greatly aided in diminishing their

fertility.

HENRY Y. HIND.

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