FISHERY 



5.3 Fishing seasons 



5.1 Fishing equipment 



5.11 Gears 



Pacific mackerel are caught commercially 

 chiefly by roundhaul gear (purse seines and 

 lampara nets); catch by other gear is mostly 

 by scoop, a large commercial dip net (Mes- 

 sersmith and Hyatt, 1965), 



Changes in types of gear and boats were 

 described by Croker (1933, 1938) in his ac- 

 counts of the mackerel fishery and by Scofield 

 (1951) in his descriptions of the types and 

 designs of purse seines and other roundhaul 

 nets. 



Every type of gear has been used in this 

 fishery--set lines, handlines, pole lines, gill 

 nets, trammel nets, lampara nets, ring nets, 

 purse seines, and scoop nets --depending on 

 demand, availability, and man's efficiency. 

 The fish are located by such means as sight- 

 ings of schools fromi boats and airplanes and 

 use of electronic sounding gears. 



5.12 Boats 



As with gear, the fishery has increased its 

 efficiency by changing the types and sizes of 

 its boats, which range from skiffs, dories, and 

 small power boats, 30 to 50 feet (9 - 15 m.) 

 long to round haul boats, 50 to 85 feet (15 -26 

 m.) long that use ring nets and purse seines. 

 The small boats may use different gear at 

 different seasons, depending on the behavior of 

 the fish and sizes of schools. 



5.2 Fishing areas 



5.21 General geographic distribution 



The Pacific mackerel fishery does not ex- 

 tend over the fish's entire range (see 2.1). The 

 fishery is limited largely to the area off 

 southern California (4.6.3) but some fishing 

 extends as far north as Monterey (4.5.2) --fig, 

 8. Some mackerel, usually small amounts, are 

 caught off Baja California (4.6.3) by the Cali- 

 fornia fleets (see 5.43 for catch). Mexican 

 landings are shown in table 4. 



5.22 Geographic ranges 

 See 5.21. 



5.23 Depth ranges 

 No data available. 



5.24 Conditions of the grounds 

 No data available. 



No regulation governs the seasonfor Pacific 

 mackerel. The State of California has estab- 

 lished a statistical season. May to April, 

 because the species is taken chiefly during the 

 fall and winter, 



5.4 Fishing operations and results 



5.41 Effort and intensity 

 No data available. 



5.42 Selectivity 



This is determined primarily by the fisher- 

 men according to their identification of species, 

 school size, and size of fish. Often there is no 

 selectivity because of the occurrence of this 

 species in mixed schools with jack mackerel 

 and pacific sardine. 



5.43 Catches 



Table 4 and figure 9 show the Pacific 

 mackerel landings for the years 1926-66. 

 Table 4 includes data on mixed landings as 

 recorded for jack mackerel and Pacific mack- 

 erel for 1916-25. 



6 PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT 



6. 1 Regulatory (legislative) measures 



6.11 Limitation or reduction of total 

 catch. 



There are no limitations on catch of Pacific 

 mackerel. 



6.12 Protection of portions of popu- 

 lation. 



Protections of certain portions, particularly 

 small fish, have been suggested by the Cali- 

 fornia Department of Fish and Game in order 

 to prevent the exploitation of the young stocks. 



Parrish and Blunt (manuscript ), in re- 

 porting on management efforts, stated that, 

 ". . . evidence showing diminishing numbers 

 of older, mature fish in the catch and a de- 

 pendence upon individual strong year-classes 

 lead to enactment of an 11 inch minimum size 

 limit with 25 percent allowance by number for 

 undersized fish effective December 1, 1947. 

 The size limit was lowered to 8 inches from 

 August 1, 1948 to July 31, 1949. Other than 

 closures to purse seining around Santa Cata- 

 lina Island, within 3 miles of the Orange County 

 coast, and in Santa Monica Bay, no other re- 

 strictions have been enacted which n-iight limit 



'Richard H. Parrish and C. E. Blunt, California De- 

 partment of Fish and Game, Terminal Island, Calif. 

 "The Pacific mackerel fishery: a summary of biological 

 knowledge and the current status of the resource." 



13 



