184 THE MACKEREL 



* down ', brings mackerel to the surface ; that the big catches 

 are generally made when the water is a greeny-white colour, 

 with a greasy look about the surface ; that the fish are then full 

 of ' herring syle ' ; that the noise of a mackerel-shoal ruffling 

 the surface is like the noise of a rain-squall ; and that where the 

 mackerel abound, there underneath them will be found skate, 

 and cod, and ling in abundance. 



Mackerel Eesearclies in the Future 



Meek tells -us in his Migrations of Fish that mackerel mature 

 at about 12 inches long, when they are three or four years old. 

 He notices that in the last decade the catches of mackerel on 

 the American side of the Atlantic diminished steadily while the 

 European catch has been steadily improving. 



As to the wanderings of the adult fish very little is known. 

 The Canadians, Hind and Whitchet, and Cligny in France, seem 

 to believe that mackerel move offshore in winter, and go down 

 into deeper and warmer Avater quite close to the coast. The 

 American, Browne Goode (on the other hand), thinks that the 

 shoals move far out into the Atlantic in winter. This is a point 

 which Business expects Science to clear up — and it cannot, in 

 fact, be an insoluble problem. 



But far more important from the fisherman's point of view 

 are the fluctuations in the numbers of the mackerel which make 

 up the shoals. If the causes of these variations could be fixed, 

 as Science is fixing them in the case of cod and haddock and 

 herring, we should be in a fair way towards forecasting the 

 mackerel harvest. 



We have, apparently, hardly started on this road yet. True 

 Garstangi showed that mackerel were abundant in the Channel 

 in February and March of 1897, when south-westerly breezes 

 brought in a supply of warm Atlantic water, and scarce in the 

 same months of 1896 and 1898, when the wind was north-easterly 

 and the water cold. Allen,^ to(j, has shown that sunshine in 

 February produces an abundance of diatoms, which means an 

 abundance of copepods in May — and so a greater congregation of 

 mackerel and good hope of a successful hatchhig season. But 

 are the fluctuations in the numbers of mackerel caught due to 

 the fact that in some years fewer eggs are hatched out than in 

 others ? Or are there sometimes abnormally small losses 

 among the baby fish at the time they first begin to feed ? Or is 

 there some other explanation ? Science cannot, at present, 



1 Journ. M. B. A., N. 8., V, 181)7 9. p. J. 



2 Ibid., 1898-1), p. 235. 



