Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1914 — Hunting the Playful Porpoise [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hunting the Playful Porpoise

i t m " ' HE playful porpoise has put ob Its winter underwear, in I I the form of a thick proj I tective layer of fat, and until early spring these &V A gamboling creatures of ImU the sea will be sought by a • special class of Atlantic fishermen. Heedless of time as the porpoise seemingly Ib, yet upon it •depends the busy man’s apportioning of his daily tasks. Because of ibis fact a curious industry has developed in this country of which the public generally knows nothing, an industry that intimately affects the running of watches and clocks. . ,».•• 3. . .... . ,

From the lower jaw of the porpoise sin extracted an oil which is peculiarly fitted to serve as a lubricant for watches, clocks and chronometers, and strange to say, from no other source can an oil of the requisite qualities be obtained. Therefore the porpoise is hunted as systematically as the whale used to be. . A few years igo nearly a quarter of a million clocks just out of their maker’s hands went wrong. It was not merely that they lost time but they actually came to a full stop and would not work at all. There was no question about their skilful fabrication and assembling. The whole trouble was'due to an imperfect lubricant, and a goodly sum of money and much time were spent before these clocks were in running order and fit for distribution. From this may be appreciated the value of the contribution which the porpoise makes to the daily life of mankind. For years the porpoise was taken principally as a side issue in other fishing. The increase In the demand for the oil led to the creation of a business having for its sole end the capture of porpoises in large numbers and under circumstances that could t}e controlled to meet commercial demands.

Harpooning had previously been the method of taking them, but this had many drawbacks. An oil refiner in New Bedford learned that the Turks on the Black Sea used dragnets to land the native porpoise when swimming near shore in quest of cer'tain small fish upon which they feed. This was a practice unknown here and conditions were not identical, but that clever Yankee believed that the facilities could be adapted to suit the requirements. From New -Jersey to Florida are now scattered fishing stations organized by that refiner of the old whaling city, and from November to April they are busy seining porpoises as they pass up and down the Atlantic shoreline. Porpoises can be caught at other seasons, but in winter they are fattest and furnißh the best and most profitable yield. To the uninitiated the fat of the body and the fat of the lower jaw appear much of a kind, but the oils produced from them are radically different in their characteristics. The oil from the body fat is worth in the raw state about 40 cents a gallon, while a like quantity of the yield of the jaw pans and the marrow of the Jawbone brings $lO. The blubber, or body fat, of a large porpoise furnishes from five to six gallons of oil, and the lower jaws of a fish of the same size give probably about two quarts on an average, and this quantity is greatly reduced before the various stages of refining have made the oil fit for the market. When ready for sale to watch and clock makers the oil is worth nearly double its value in the raw or unrefined condition. The equipment at each fishing station consists principally of the boats and the special nets designed for the work. A working unit is composed of four boats and a mile of seine. The seines are heavy and exceptionally stout, and it.is..something of a task to handle them properly. The boats are a cross between a skiff and the fishing dory of Newfoundland and our own down East coast. i ’ It is not possible to put out after the porpoises from sheltered points; the boats have to be launched right into the surf and carried safely beyond the danger line of the tumbling

breakers. Loaded with its quarter of a mile of net it is a hard task to shove one of these boats through the broken water_ near, the beach- The most fruitful porpoise hunting station is close to Cape Hatteras, and it is well known what hazards lurk in the waters of that part of the coast of the Carolinas. Because of the risks run and the skill required in this occupation the crews are recruited from local fishermen who are perfectly familiar with the coast and are quite at home in the surf. They must have clear heads, steady nerves and the ability to act quickly. The surfmen are ever ready for their work when a school qf porpoises draws near, provided the sea gives them half a chance, and it takes but little imagination to grasp something of the excitement and the peril of their occupation. The habit of the porpoise is to swim in schools close in shore and probably. a hundred or two hundred yards seaward from the beach. This makes it, possible tos intercept their course and to drag them ashore after they have stranded in the shallow water, the seines preventing their escape seaward and frightening them shoreward. The operation of capturing them is simple to describe, but its proper execution is quite another matter. Sometimes the sea is so smooth that the fish detect the presence of their foe soon enough to go scurrying ofT at great speed. Again, the waters may be so troubleous that prompt handling of the nets and the interception of the approaching school becomes impossible. Perhaps one or more of the boats may be swamped before getting clear of the breakers, making further successful efforts at the time out of the question, or the porpoises may be swimming too far Off shore to be reached with a fair chance of drawing “them to shallow water before they can get away. There are many times when the efforts of the fishermen are fruitless, and days may pass without a single porpoise putting in an appearance. Sometimes a haul will net less than a dozen; perhaps the surfmen may land half a hundred; and there have been occasions when more than double this number have been beached at a single

try. As several thousand must be caught during the season to supply the annual consumption of oil for this country It is easy to understand why there are stations for this work located along the Atlantic seaboard from New Jersey to Florida. Porpoises vary from six to twelve feet in lengjji, and the biggest of them weigh fully a quarter of a ton. Their speed in frightened flight and their beautiful leaps above the water’s surface tell of their great strength; and one can easily picture the task involved in drawing the heavy seines with added burden of a goodly number of these excited mammals making their utmost efforts to break their way to freedom. The porpoise is the largest denizen., of the deep caught by seines’ within the water” of the United States, and. for excitement the nearest approach is the taking of the tunny in the waters of Europe. As soon as the porpoises are stranded tn shallow water, the fishermen rush in among them, taking good care to avoid the slashing sweep of their powerful tails, and hook them bo that they may be dragged high and dry upon the beach, strange as it may seem, the fish ar« not infrequently drowned or suffocated before they can be pulled ashore. This is because thev cannot breathe properly when resting on their sides or their bellies.

No time is lost after these graceful creatures of the sea have been landed in stripping them of their fat. The head is severed from the body and the precious tissue of the lower Jaw and cheeks is tried out separately from the body blubber. The reason for this is that the two oils are quite unlike as lubricants, and haste ia needful in order to prevent the fatty tissue from becoming rancid before rendering. Rancid fat seriously affects the final product, and seemingly trifling conditions bear importantly upon the ultimate suitability of the lubricant. At the fishing stations the oil produced is essentially raw or crude by comparison with the finished and contains a good deal of foreign substance which must be removed before the stuff is fit for the market As soon as the oil is received by the refiner it is heated gently in order to complete the cooking process begun by the fishermen at the seining stations. Up to this point man has done his work and now time and Nature take uft the task. The oil is allowed to rest for eight months and is exnosed during that time to the clarify"tßg off gets- of the sun and also to the Influences of climatic heat and cold. Then it is strained or flltened through suitable fabrics to cleanse it

The last turns of the big screw of a cider mill crushing out the cider. It takes all the power of a strong man to turn It when it gets low.