THE MACKEEEL 185 



answer. But it is obvious that Business should insist upon and 

 encourage investigations into scale reading as appHed to this 

 species, into the effect of temperature upon its breeding habits 

 along the lines laid down this year at Plymouth by Orton, and 

 into the food of the young at the ' critical period ' — the time 

 when the baby fish first begin to feed. These inquiries, if 

 correlated w4th researches into the ' small game ' on which 

 young mackerel depend, will probably produce results of 

 immediate practical value to the fishermen — and especially to 

 the drifter men. And the ' small game ' inquiry is all-important. 

 The Americans believe, for instance, that when mackerel have *' 

 been feeding on the copepod which their fishermen call ' red 

 feed ' or ' cayenne ', they spoil very quickly after capture. 



But there is no ' isolating ' the mackerel problem. The shoals 

 hunt not small game only, but the fry of the herring, and many 

 other species. They are in their turn hunted by cod and ling 

 and skate, and other trawl-fish. If we once arrive at the stage 

 of prognosticating the mackerel harvest, trawlermen and long 

 shoremen are hkely to discover from the ' mackerel forecast ' 

 many things which will help them in their search for other fishes. 



Mr. J. Willis Bund, in his evidence before Mr. Tennant's 

 Committee in 1908, drew attention to Norwegian investigations 

 on the capture of salmon in mackerel nets. ' If it is a fact — 

 I do not say it is — but if it is the fact that salmon feed on the 

 young mackerel, the movements of the mackerel would regulate 

 to some extent the movements of the salmon, and consequently 

 the habits of the mackerel and the salmon are interdependent.' 



This piece of evidence is at least valuable as emphasizing the 

 fundamental truths (so often obscured by silly rivalries) that 

 the interests of all classes of fishermen are one ; and that there 

 is no break in the chain of interdependence of all forms of hfe 

 in the sea. 



