CHAPTER V

SUN FISHING

There is another class of deep sea Fishing belonging alone to the West Coast of Ireland, that is very little worked at present, although its success is beyond a doubt, it is for the Sun Fish or basking shark. If the end of April is hot the

HARPOONING THE SUN FISH. 49 Sun Fish are certain to shew above the water and remain on the bank till the middle of May. This large shoal of sharks pass annually at this season along the West Coast on their way from the southern to the northern seas-they are taken on the Sun Fish Bank, situated about 100 miles west of Clew Bay, and extending many miles north and south. The fishermen there reckon it a day's sail out of sight of land-the Fish are a very large kind of shark-they are of a light colour, like a dog-fish, with the same rough skin, and have measured nine yards in length and nearly four yards in breadth as they lie dead on the shore-they are found on the in great numbers, and their large dorsal fin is seen at a great distance, as it rises three or four feet out of the water, while they He motionless on the surface basking in the sun. At this time they are easily approached and struck with a har poon; the boat employed for this purpose approaches the fish with a man in the bows ready to harpoon it, the line attached to the harpoon is two hundred fathoms long, and is coiled up In the bows; a man stands by with a hatchet ready to cut it should it get entangled or foul of any thing in running out. When the fish is struck he will at the first dart carry out from seventy to a hundred and fifty or two hundred fathom of line he makes this rush to the bottom where he rolls himself and rubs his wound against the ground to free himself from the harpoon. The fishermen generally allow him an hour to tire himself before they begin to haul upon the harpoon line, they coil up the slack of it again ready for him to make ano- ther rush, and play him in this way, sometimes for eight or nine hours before they can get him to come to the surface and when he does so they are ready to strike him with two or three more harpoons, and when these are fixed in him they are able to pull him alongside the vessel with the harpoon lines, they then stretch him fore and aft along the vessel's side and get a jowl rope round his head, and the bight of a

50 IRISH FISHERIES hawser round his tail, they then give him two deep cuts one on each side of the tail, with a hatchet. In his agony and his efforts to get free he works his tail so hard that he snaps the bone across where the cuts were made; they then cut flesh holes in the body of the fish, on both sides, that will take a large rope through them they then reeve ropes through these holes, and by hauling taut on the side of the fish next the vessel, and slacking away rope to the other side of the fish, it will cant him over, on his back. They then split down the stomach, take out the liver, which is the only part they use for oil, and let the rest of the fish go adrift. There is no blubber between the skin and the flesh, as in the whale, but the oil exacted from the liver is as fine as the finest spermaceti. The live of these fish is generally two tons in weight, and makes from six to eight barrels of oil.

These fish are most powerful in the water, and if har pooned in the shoulder they are very hard to kill often car rying oil the whole harpoon line, but experienced har pooners strike them in the body, near the dorsal fin ra ther low down, where it will go through into the intes tines, or near the vertebrae towards the tail. They must be struck with great caution, as they will stave in the boat with a blow of their tail, if it is at all within their reach. These fish are worth from thirty-five to fifty pounds each, and when so many as five hundred have been killed in one season I think this class of fishing should be well attended to for the short season that it lasts if the weather is favourable for it, especially as it is at a time when other fish are out of season.

I have no doubt that if there fish were examined by a scien- tific person there are other parts of them besides the liver that might be turned to account, and would in- crease their value considerable, but the fishermen on the coast have a superstition that they fish will leave the coast if the bodies of those caught were brought to the shore - they have

THE HARPOON. 51 no ribs, merely a back bone like an eel. The annexed sketch shews the kind of harpoon used in this fishing.

Fig. No 1.

1. The harpoon head.

2. The barb which springs out on removal of the ring.

3. A ring or strong worsted thread that keeps the blade of the spear straight until it enters that far into the fish, when it is pressed up the spear, and leaves the barb of the spear free to turn across at right angles, where it holds on until cut out.

4. Line attached to head and coiled in bows of the boat.

5. The shaft.

6. The harpoon ready for action with barb secured by ring. These fish sometimes come in shore as near as Achill, Clare Island, Innislboffin, and Innishark, which latter Island takes its name from them.

The Sun Fish have been met with in large numbers off Tory Island, and along the North-west coast of Donegal where the Skerries men have found them at different times lying so thick over the ground where their Cod lines were set that they would not venture to put to sea in their open boats to lift the Cod lines for fear of the Sun Fish striking their boats, they have counted from sixty to one hundred basking in the sun of a morning towards the latter end of June, and they did not lift their lines until late in the day, when the fish had gone down. This proves that the Sun Fishery is not confined to the Sun Fish bank of Clew Bay, but shews that if the weather is not Suited for the fishery there, that by following on the course taken by the fish, if the weather turns out hot, they may make a good fishing at any point from Clew Bay to the Scotch Islands. It seems to Me that as the Sun Fish bank is the first soundings made by the fish - coining in from the Atlantic, that they make a longer stay there than in any other

52 IRISH FISHERIES part, but boats (The Countess of Roden of Kilkcel for one) have gone round from the East Coast to Sun Fish, beginning to work off Troy Island, and making a good season though late when they arrived there.

The English Sun Fish grows sometimes to a very large size, one taken near Plymouth was five hundred weight; in form It resembles a bream, or small deep fish cut off in the middle; the mouth is very small, and contains in each jaw two broad teeth with sharp edges, the color of the back Is dusky and dap pled, and the belly Is of a silvery white, when boiled it has been observed to turn to a glutinous jelly, and will most probably serve all the purposes of Isinglass were it found In sufficient plenty. Buffon, page 428.

"The chief instrument of a fishes motion are the fins, which "in some are more numerous than in others. The fish in a "state of repose spreads all its fins, and seems to rest upon its "pectoral. (those near the gills) and ventral fins (the belly "fins) near the bottom; if the fish folds up either of its pec"toral fins it inclines to that side, folding the right pectoral fin "the fish inclines to the right side folding the left fin it in-"clines to that side in turn. When the fish, desires to have a "retrograde motion striking with the pectoral fins in a contra-"ry direction effectually produces It. If the desires to turn, "a blow from the tail sends it about, but if the tail strikes both "ways that produces a progressive motion. In pursuance of "these observations if the dorsal fin (the back fin) and ventral "fins be cut off, the fish reels to the right and left and endea- "vours to supply its loss by keeping the rest of its fins in con- "stant employment. If the right pectoral fin be cut off the "fish leans to that side; if the ventral on the same side be "cut away, then it loses its equilibrium entirely. When the "tail is cut off the fish loses all motion, and gives itself to where "the water impels it."