PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 25. 67 



MARINE FISHERIES. 



DEEP-SEA FISHERIES. 



Prosperity ruled the waves for the salt-water fishermen of 

 Massachusetts in 1916. Even the most grizzled "old timer" 

 who is wont to lounge about the wharves and "gloom" each 

 bright, present-day fishing success story with "That reminds 

 me," and "Nuthin like in 78 when I," etc., was forced to 

 admit, "I never see nuthin like it, no, sir." 



For amount of fish landed in comparison with tonnage 

 engaged, as well as for the enormous stocks and shares made 

 by vessels, crews and fish-curing and shipping concerns generally 

 1916 will long be known as "the record year," unless old ocean 

 should decide in this, or some other year to come, to just dump 

 all at once her whole Klondike wealth of finny, swimming 

 treasure on the decks of the fishing fleet. 



The year of 1915 was an unusually successful one, but 1916 

 left it far out of sight to leeward. Every branch was pros- 

 perous; every branch produced financial returns seldom or 

 never equaled. As a rule, in past years remarkably large 

 stocks were the exception; in 1916 they were the rule, and the 

 fishing vessels or firms that did not make money were the 

 exceptions. The fleets of Gloucester, Boston and Province- 

 town all basked in the sunshine of this flood of fortune from 

 the sea. 



Mackerel. The most gratifying feature of the whole year to 

 fish dealers, vessel owners, skippers and fishermen alike was the 

 influx of enormous schools of mackerel, which came early and 

 stayed late. An unusually successful spring in southern waters, 

 the fares being landed at Fulton Market, New York, was 

 followed by a record late May and early June catch by our 

 vessels on the "Cape Shore" trip to the Nova Scotia coast. 

 After this the fish appeared off No Man's Land and Block 

 Island, Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket; on Nantucket 

 Shoals, or the "Rips;" in South Channel, on Georges Bank, 

 along the Cape Cod Shore and Massachusetts Bay, hanging on 

 in the two latter places until November, so it can be seen that 



