Menhaden Utilization in Relation to the Conservation of Food and Game Fishes of the Texas Gulf Coast

Abstract

Abstract Purse seining for menhaden off the Texas Gulf coast is unlawful because it is believed that such seining would take large numbers of game and food fish and reduce the forage-fish population. Out of 2,500,000 menhaden taken in 17 purse-seine hauls in Louisiana waters over a 2-month period, 208 game and food fish comprising 12 species were caught. Stomach analyses were made on 5,946 fish of 34 species caught June 7 to August 31, 1948. They represented all the important game and food fish on the Texas coast. Menhaden were found in 165 stomachs with a frequency of 2.8 percent. Only 11 of the 34 species had eaten menhaden and in these the frequency of occurrence never exceeded 10.0 percent. The frequency of food items in the diet of these fishes was shrimp 61.8 percent, fishes exclusive of the menhaden 34.2 percent, crabs 12.0 percent, squids 4.0 percent, and miscellaneous invertebrates 4.4 percent. Menhaden and mullets appear to be the most used species of forage fish, but since these fishes are iden...