Mullet.

Manawatu Herald, 21 October 1897, Page 3

Mullet.

Sir James Hector has arrived at the conclusion that there are at least two different and distinct varieties of mallet, bat whether these are distinct Bpecies, or seasonal, sexual, or only younger and older individuals has not yet been made clear. First, we have a mullet that feeds in the ocean, and congregates along the coast in enormous shoals. These fish sometimes enter Kaipara Harbour in large schools, following the clean salt-water of the flood-tide up the deepest channels, and returning again with the ebb ; but in some season^ especially in summer they rush up the shallower channels and branches of the harbour, and disappear again suddenly. This variety of mallet is known to the fishermen and settlers as the " clean-gut," 11 clean run," or •• sea-mullet. They are always of large size, and whenever caught, at whatever season of the year, they are in prime condition. The other variety is known to ■ the Jiabyermen as the " settler " or •*^nuddy-fish." When opened they are not clean and bright, with the stomachs and intestines apparently empty, as in the case of the sea fish, bat are full of slimy mud, the strong muscular pharygeal stomach being [ distended with a mass of tough brown clay. This, when examined with the microscope, proved to con sist of 90 per cent of minute grains of volcanic sand similar to the mud along the banks of tha rivers, and mixed with many mioroscopio organisms, such as diatom valves and crustacean fragments, the latter (chiefly Copepods) being very abundant, and evidently forming the favourite food of the fish. The muddy fi-h are caught inside the harbour only. Since the commencement of the canneries, or about 15 year?, the total number of fish taken, allowing 10 per cent for loss and waste, has not exceeded two million fish, which _ is a number that would ba produced the spawn of four or five femalesA fisherman at Kaipara who has fished for 20 years says that the fish are in best condition from April to December. Set nets are used and are shot round the shoal of fish in the same manner as the seine net. They are about 600 yards long and 5 feet deep, and are four and a quarter inch mesh. The chief enemies of the mullet are dog-fish Eahawai, and shags. The canneries in Auckland are fish-canning from March to December, then beef preserving to Febarary and fruit canning from Ist February to sometime in March.