210 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



71°, to the Mediterranean and Adriatic. It is not recorded from the 

 West Indies, Bermudas, Gulf of Mexico, South America, or Africa. 



On the east coast of North America mackerel first appear in the 

 spring off Cape Hatteras and subsequently reach the shores of the 

 Middle and New England States and the British ]3ossessions, migrating 

 in from the sea from a southerly or southeasterly direction. Certain 

 bodies of fish seek the New England shore, while others first strike the 

 shore of Nova Scotia and follow it into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 They leave the coast in the same way in fall and early winter. 



The mackerel is a wandering fish. Its movements when in the coast 

 waters are undoubtedly regulated by external causes not yet clearly 

 understood, but food, temperature of water, and reproduction are potent 

 factors. 



The mackerel is one of the most abundant fishes found on the Atlan- 

 tic coast. It goes in schools, often of immense extent. The testimony 

 of reliable fishermen relative to the size of schools observed often 

 seems incredible; thus one school seen in the South Channel in 1848 

 was half a mile wide and at least 20 miles long. Another school noticed 

 off Block Island in 1877 was estimated to contain 1,000,000 barrels. The 

 schools swim at the surface or at varying depths beneath the surface, 

 and present a comparatively broad front. 



From the earliest times, there have been periods of scarcity of mack- 

 erel alternating with seasons of abundance. As early as 1670 the 

 Colony of Massachusetts enacted laws for the jireservation of mackerel. 

 Since 1885 there has been the most noteworthy and prolonged scarcity 

 of the fish of which there is any record. The New England catch in 

 1885 was 330,0iJ0 barrels, and in the 8 years ending in 1885 averaged 

 309,000 barrels; in 1886 it fell to 80,000 barrels, and in the succeeding 

 10 years aggregated only 481,000 barrels; was several times below 

 25,000 barrels, and never exceeded 89,000 barrels. The yield in 1896 

 was the largest in 9 years. 



The spawning season on the east coast of North America includes 

 the months of May, June, and July, June probably being the principal 

 month. The spawning-grounds are in rather deep water and extend 

 along the entire coast from Long Island to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 Most of the bays and sounds of the New England coast are important 

 spawning-grounds, as is also the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Prior to 

 spawning and for several weeks thereafter the mackerel are lean and 

 poor and never make No. 1 fish when salted. 



FOOD AND ENEMIES. 



The mackerel feeds on a large variety of small animals, and is in 

 turn eaten by a number of fishes, birds, cetaceans, etc. The relations 

 existing between the presence of favorite food and of enemies on one 

 hand and of mackerel on the other are fully appreciated by the com- 

 mercial fishermen, who are often guided in their search for fish by the 

 appearance of mackerel food in abundance or of their well-known 



