Notes on the Spring and Summer Fishing in Deep Water off 

 Newport During the Years 1905 - 1909. 



BY SUPERINTENDENT E. W. BARNES. 



The following data, which have been collected during a period of five years 

 (1905-1909) are published as a bare record of facts which are interesting and 

 valuable in themselves, but with no pretense at drawing general conclusions. 

 As far as it has been possible to obtain accurate information, a statement is made 

 for each year of the arrival, abundance, and the close of the abundant season, 

 of several marketable fishes which are caught in the traps off Newport and the 

 Sakonnet River. 



Following this there are calendars giving in tabular form the "run" of scup, 

 mackerel, and squiteague for these years. A table is also given of the first appear- 

 ance of various fishes. 



Season of 1905. 



Scup. A single scvip caught off Seal Rock on May first was the herald of the 

 scup season in Rhode Island. Then for over a fortnight a few scup were caught 

 daily until May sixteenth, when the catch was large enough to be spoken of in 

 terms of barrels. There was a gi-adual increase in numbers from this time until 

 the first of June, when the "run" actually began, and for a little over two weeks 

 hundreds of barrels of scup were caught daily. A large proportion of these fish 

 were put into pounds to avoid "glutting" the market. Commencing with the 

 eighteenth of June the catches were light, and the fishing season ended about the 

 twenty- fifth of June; although for a few days after that fish were shipped from 

 the pounds. The scup season in 1905 was rather poor, owing partly, perhaps, to 

 the large run of pollock during the middle of May. As will be seen by the ap- 

 pended calendar, the scup were late in arriving. 



3Iackerel (Scomber scombrus). The first appearance was near the mouth of 



the Sakonnet River, where one specimen was caught on April twenty-eighth. On 



May second a few were caught in offshore traps. The first large catch of mackerel 



was landed at Ne^vport on May fourteenth, and amounted to 335 barrels. June 



2y 



