196 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



at this time. Such accounts, it is true, are often based on a misconception," but 

 the fact that the latest catches of mackerel for the season are usually made there- 

 abouts, along the outer shore of Cape Cod, or on the eastern side of Nantucket 

 Shoals, and never in the inner parts of the Gulf of Maine, corroborate them in this 

 instance. So much evidence of this sort has been gathered that we may accept as 

 correct the view held by most fishermen that most of the mackerel desert the Gulf 

 altogether in winter. It is not known, however, whether the schools entering on 

 the Nova Scotian side go out again by the same route, or whether they join the 

 general movement westv/ard and then southward past Cape Cod. Mackerel usually 

 remain in the Gulf of Maine into November, large catches sometimes being made 

 about Cape Ann '* late in the month, and occasionally, even, until mid-December, 

 although this is unusual. In 1913, for example, 1,200 fish were caught off Gloucester 

 on December 10; 3,000 off Chatham a day or two earlier; and in 1922 nearly 1,000 

 barrels were taken on the Massachusetts coast during the early part of the month. 

 In mild winters mackerel are sometunes reported off the outer coast of Nova Scotia 

 as late as Christmas time, but the last of December, at the latest, sees them vanish 

 from the whole American seaboard. 



Winter home. — -The exact winter home of the American mackerel has not been 

 found. True, a few have been caught on cod lines in deep water off Grand Manan 

 in winter; '' some found then near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; others (all small) were 

 taken from cod stomachs on Georges and La Have Banks and off the coast of 

 New Jersey *" at that season. There is at least one record of mackerel caught in a 

 herring gill net in January many years ago. Otter trawlers, too, occasionally 

 pick up a few on Georges Bank and in the South Channel in February or March. 

 In 1922, for example, one otter trawler took a number of 1-pound fish in the Channel 

 in 70 to 80 fathoms on February 27. Another vessel brought in 150 pounds of 

 mackerel from the same ground on March 29, while other trawlers reported catching 

 a few stray mackerel at about that time." Such events happen rarely, however, 

 and the numbers of fish concerned have always been too small to point to any of 

 the usual fishing banks as the regular wintering grounds for mackerel. In fact 

 no large bodies of the latter have ever been encountered anywhere off the American 

 coast between the end of December and some time in March." It is, however, 

 reasonable to assume as a working hypothesis that the winter habits of the Ameri- 

 can fish parallel those of its North Sea relatives, which move out on the bottom 

 from, shallow waters generally, some to winter on bottom in the northern part of 

 the North Sea, as proven by the trawl fishery, others (probably fewer) in the English 



" The successive approach of one school after another to the coast often suggests a long-shore movement of the fish. Kendall 

 (1910, p. 287), for example, tells of an instance when seiners reported "following" the schools continuously along southern Nova 

 Scotia, although the fish taken off Liverpool proved to be of quite different sizes from the catch made about Cape Breton. 



" In 1922 (Gloucester Times of Apr. 26, 1923) the mackerel-netters fishing in that region did well all through November, tak- 

 ing something like 6,600 barrels during the month. 



» CoUins, 1883b, p. 273. 



*o Most recently on February 22, 1922, when a haddock fisherman took some from cod caught on the northwestern part of 

 Oeocges Bank (Gloucester Times for Apr 26, 1923). 



<i Gloucester Times, Apr. 26, 1923. 



** Schools of "mackerel" have been reported more than once in midwinter, but never supported by the actual capture of 

 the fish. 



