OF THE HABITS AND MIGRATIONS OF THE MACKEREL. 27 



That on the first appearance of the fish a certain amount of migration 

 in a definite direction, generally from south to north, takes place cannot 

 be denied. It is most conspicuous on the American coast, where the 

 fish, as has been explained, first appear at some distance from land off 

 Cape Hatteras, and gradually move northward until they reach the 

 coast in the neighbourhood of Long Island, about a month after they 

 are first seen. Even in this case, however, it is fairly obvious that large 

 numbers of fish must be moving in towards the land from latitudes 

 more northerly than that of Cape Hatteras, where the fish first appear.* 

 The fact tliat the spawning season of the mackerel becomes later the 

 further north they are captured is sufficient in itself to prove that such 

 is the case. The fish which spawn in the Gulf of St, Lawrence in July 

 cannot be the same as those which spawned in May and June on the 

 New England coast. In the autumn, too, when the fish disappear, the 

 facts do not point to an extensive southerly migration in the surface 

 waters along the coasts. That the fish move out of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence seems to have been established, but this does not take place 

 until November, and the fishing is continued in this region quite as 

 long as it is further south. There is practically no fishing on the more 

 southerly coasts of the United States after the fishing in the Gulf has 

 ceased. 



On the Atlantic coasts of Europe the movements of the mackerel, 

 after their first appearance, are a little more difficult to follow. Un- 

 fortunately no information has been found in the literature consulted as 

 to when the fish first arrive off the coast of Portugal, and we only know 

 that they are plentiful from May onwards. The earliest catches on 

 this side of the Atlantic of which records exist are those made in the 

 western part of the English Channel in January and February, and 

 some also off the west coast of Ireland. In the former case the boats 

 generally obtain their first fish about 20 miles south-west of Start 

 Point, and subsequently work more to the westward, taking them 20 

 miles south-west of the Eddystoue. This seems to suggest that we 

 have here to do with the last of the autumn fish of the previous year 

 moving down Channeh 



On the west coast of France the spring shoals may appear as early 

 as February {e.g., 1894), although in other years none may be taken until 

 late in March or April. It is generally somewhat later that the fish 

 arrive off the mouth of the Channel and off the Irish coast. In Norway 

 and the Kattegat the fish do not come to the coast until towards the 

 end of May, and the fact that the spawning season of these fish is so 

 much later than that of those in the Channel would, in this case also, 



* See especially Spencer Baird, "Sea Fisheries of Eastern North America," and 

 Appendix. Ileport of U.S. Fish Com., 1886. 



