194 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



follow the west coast of Nova Scotia (p. 192). After the large fish that breed in the 

 Massachusetts Bay region are spawned out it seems that most of them move out 

 either into the open Gulf or northward up the coast of Maine, for in midsummer 

 and early autumn the hook-and-line fishing used to be most productive between 

 Cape Elizabeth and Mount Desert Rock, notably about Monhegan Island and 

 offshore as far as Cashes Ledge. In years of plenty, however, the smaller fish are to 

 be caught all along the coast throughout the summer as noted elsewhere (p. 190). 



Half a century ago, during the days of the hook-and-line fishery, there would 

 have-been no need to emphasize the fact that large as well as small mackerel summer 

 in the Gulf of Maine. To-day, however, when the American fishery is carried on 

 chiefly with purse seines and nets, and when, consequently, the schools are seldom 

 caught or reported except when near the surface, there is a widespread view that 

 they largely desert the Gulf for a longer or shorter period some time during the 



Fig. 93. — Total landings, in pounds, of mackerel (solid line) at Boston, Gloucester, and Portland, from grounds west of 

 66° longitude and tributary to the Gulf of Maine. Also percentage of the catch that consisted of fish smaller than 1 ? 2 pounds 



summer, for they generally disappear then for a time. In 1906, for example, the 

 schools vanished from the Massachusetts Bay region in June, to reappear the 27th 

 of July, on which date 28 seiners made catches ranging from 18 to 250 barrels each; 

 and in 1892, a year of abundance, they disappeared (that is, sank) in August, not to 

 appear again in any abundance anywhere in the Gulf of Maine until October. During 

 other years, however, they school at the surface all summer long. 34 Since good 

 catches of mackerel were formerly made on hook and line in one or another part 

 of the Gulf right through the season from June to October, even when none showed 

 on the surface, these summer disappearances merely mean that the fish have sought 

 lower levels in the water or that they have wandered to some other part of the Gulf; 

 and perhaps the schools have dispersed more or less, for the comings and goings of 

 the mackerel are proverbially erratic. 



31 1882 was an example of this. 



