18                       LOUISIANA CONSERVATION NEWS 
 
 
VIOSCA FISHES FOR HORSE 
     MACKEREL BUT LANDS 
         BIG DOLPHIN INSTEAD 
HIS Is going to be a fish story, a big 
    fish story-or at least a story about a 
    big fish. The only difference between It 
and other fish stories is that this one is true. 
  If you don't believe it, just look at the 
accompanying pictures. Or better still, take 
a walk down to the museum and see the 
fish for yourself. 
  It all happened while the conservation 
patrol boat, "The Hawk," was cruising along 
the Gulf, just off Cat Island. The crew of 
the boat were on the lookout for conserva- 
tion law violators. Percy Viosca, Jr., direc- 
tor of the Fisheries Division of the Depart- 
ment of Conservation, who was returning 
 
 
   "The rifle was a new one." Mr. Viosca 
explained, "and I thought it would be a 
good opportunity for testing its accuracy." 
  When Mr. Viosca arrived on the scene 
there were five dolphins, generally known 
as porpoises, circling the bow of the boat. 
Up and down they cut the water, the fishery 
director watching them intently. He looked 
at the largest one, then waited until it came 
up for air. At last! The rifle cracked 
sharply. A bullet lodged behind the dol- 
phin's left fin and the giant sea animal 
lunged over on its side. It struggled fran- 
tically, then dived under the water leaving 
a crimson pool of blood on the surface. The 
crew turned the boat around and followed 
the fleeing animal for about 500 feet. The 
boat hook was called Into service, and the 
crippled prey was twice hooked beneath the 
fins. But each time it succeeded in getting 
away. Then the crew tried hooking it in 
the nostrils. Of a sudden it ceased strug- 
gling, and slipping off the hook, sank to the 
bottom. The party aboard the boat thought 
that it was dead, and Mr. Viosca started 
back in quest of the horse mackerel. Then 
up to the surface bobbed friend dolphin, 
flopping frantically. Again the hook was 
placed in its nostrils, but it died as the 
crew pulled it aboard. It was 7% feet long 
and weighed 275 pounds. 
  "The dolphin," Mr. Viosca declared, "is 
seldom caught, being a particularly elusive 
creature. Contrary to popular opinion, it is 
not a; fish at all, but a mammal (or warm 
blooded animal), closely related to the 
whale. It gives birth and nurses its young 
like other mammals. It Is a particular 
enemy of our game fish, and should be 
killed whenever possible." 
  The dolphin or porpoise caught by Mr. 
Viosca Is to be mounted in plaster, and pre- 
sented to the Louisiana State Museum. 
 
DUCK SICKNESS CAUSED 
     BY EUROPEAN ROUNDWORM 
            LEAD POISONING SCOUTED 
 
         (Continued from page 5) 
walls of the esophagus, including the crop, 
and a resulting distention of these parts 
which may ultimately compress the pneumo- 
gastric nerve, producing a fatal asphyxia." 
  Dr. Hall has asked the Louisiana depart- 
men of conservation to trap and send alive 
to him birds from any flocks of wild ducks 
which show symptoms of the sickness which 
has occurred periodically in Louisiana, in 
 
 
Seven-and-a-half foot dolphin or "porpoise," a par- much more thorough
examination, as he 
ticular enemy of game fish, taken off the Louisiana puints out that blood
diseases have been 
                    coast. 
                                            reported from areas where there
has been 
                                            duck   sickness but that it is
absolutely 
from  a trip of scientific investigation, was  necessary to make such a study
of blood 
seated in the back of the boat trying to    from live specimens. 
catch a horse mackerel.                       The department will appreciate
coopera- 
  "Here's a bunch of porpoises up here,"    tion of sportsmen and
citizens who will re- 
the captain called back excitedly.           port further outbreaks of sickness
among 
  The fisheries head forgot all about horse  the ducks, geese or other game
birds so 
mackerels. He picked up the captain's rifle that specimens suffering from
the outbreak 
and hurried towards the front of the, boat. may be scientifically examined.