192 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



the Gulf of St. Lawrence as at Cape Sable 31 (or earlier) , also argues that the fish have 

 not come from the southwest but from offshore, for did they cross the mouth of the 

 Gulf of Maine en route they might be expected to show earlier in its western than in 

 its eastern side. Furthermore, mackerel summer in and off the Gulf of Maine 

 instead of appearing there only as spring and autumn visitors. We may add that 

 there is no evidence of any general movement west and south from the Gulf of Maine 

 region in autumn. The mackerel simply disappear. For that matter mackerel are 

 seen and caught off Nova Scotia even later in the season than off Cape Cod, just 

 the reverse of what might be expected if they carried out a general north and south 

 migration along the coast. 



From evidence of this sort, from the breeding habits of the fish (p. 206), and from 

 the winter habits of the European mackerel to be mentioned later (p. 196), scientific 

 opinion has gradually crystallized to the effect that the essential features of the sea- 

 sonal migrations of the mackerel are essentially a spawning journey inshore and into 

 shallow water in spring, alternating with an offshore movement combined with a 

 descent into deep water in autumn. 



According to geographic conditions these fundamental changes of situation are 

 accompanied by horizontal journeys of greater or less length and of various directions 

 but not necessarily north and south. In the case of the bodies of fish that are seen 

 south of New York the journey in and out is nearly east and west and perhaps not 

 more than 50 to 60 miles in some cases, but for the schools that visit the inner parts 

 of the Gulf of Maine the journey probably covers 200 mdes each way while its route 

 is roughly north and south. At least a part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence mackerel 

 have a still longer journey, for it is probable that these fish follow the outer coast of 

 Nova Scotia southwestward for some distance in the autumn and possibly even as 

 far as Cape Sable before they turn out to sea. The case is made more complicated 

 by the strong probability that while the feeding migrations of the Gulf of Maine and 

 of the Gidf of St. Lawrence fish do not carry them out of these general areas until it is 

 time for them to seek winter quarters, the southern mackerel (that is, those spawning 

 south of New York) may travel along shore toward the northeast after spawning, for 

 mackerel disappear off this part of the coast after a brief stay — by June at the latest— 

 not to reappear there until the following spring; and though all knowledge of the 

 habits of this fish, combined with ocean temperatures and with the distribution of 

 their prey, make it more likely that they work northeastward toward the rich feeding 

 grounds of the Nantucket Shoals and Georges Bank regions than that they move 

 out to summer over the Continental Slope south of the latitude of New York, there 

 is no reason to suppose that any of them journey farther east or enter the Gulf of 

 Maine. 33 



According to general report mackerel seeking the inner part of the Gulf of Maine 

 follow two main routes after they first show themselves in spring, either keeping to 

 the western side along Cape Cod, or coming in along Browns Bank and the west 

 coast of Nova Scotia. Their inward migration covers a period of some weeks, the 



» According to Huntsman (1922b) mackerel appeared at Cape Breton on May 5, at Gaspe (on the Gull of St Lawrence) on May 

 12, and off Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, on May 16, in 1894. 



•' We have found no positive record of mackerel taken in late summer anywhere south of Delaware Bay, although they are 

 plentiful off this part of the coast in spring. Bell and Nichols, it is true, speak of "mackerel" as found in tiger-shark stomachs 

 off North Carolina (Copeia, No. 92, Mar., 1921, pp. 18-19), but Mr. Nichols writes us that these were "just Scombroids and 

 probably not Scomber scombTU3." 



