l^ U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



MACKEREL 



Although statistics for the 1937 mackerel season on the Atlantic 

 coast are not completely assembled, a fair estimate of the total United 

 States vessel catch lies between 14 and 15 million pounds. This is 

 the poorest catch since 1922, when landings by vessel fishermen were 

 about 9,000,000 pounds. The 1937 catch falls about 65 percent below 

 1936, when some 40,000,000 pounds were landed at eastern ports. 



This great decline brought serious consequences. Many fishermen 

 who usually depend upon the mackerel fishery for their livelihood 

 during a great part of the year were forced either to engage in 

 some other fishery, such as dragging, or to continue after mackerel 

 at negligible profit. The majority of the fleet adopted the latter 

 course. In either case, the financial return was reduced greatly 

 under expectations. Another aspect of the situation is well illus- 

 trated by cold storage statistics. During the previous 5-year period, 

 the New England and Middle Atlantic cold storage holdings of 

 mackerel reached a maximum in September or October. This reserve, 

 which averaged 10,000,000 pounds, was built up during summer and 

 early fall when prices w^ere low. In October of 1937, on the other 

 hand, less than 2,000,000 pounds were in storage, and even after 

 continued speculative purchases at high prices, the maximum hold- 

 ings attained were but 3,000,000 pounds by the end of the year. 



In the light of developments during 1937, the necessity for an 

 accurate mackerel catch forecast stands out more than ever before 

 as an important fisheries problem. The biological basis for any suc- 

 cessful prediction of catch must be a sound knowledge, not only of 

 the mackerel, but also of its environment. Acquisition of such 

 knowledge has occupied the principal attention of the mackerel in- 

 vestigators during the past 10 years and a re])ort is now^ in prepara- 

 tion covering results of the work through 1936. Briefly summarized, 

 the}^ are as follows (O. E. Sette, Report to the North American 

 Council on Fishery Investigations, September 1937) : 



Winter home. — The species winters along the edge of the conti- 

 nental shelf, most probably from the offing of Chesapeake Bay to 

 the Fundian Channel, and j)ossibly as far east as Sable Island Bank. 

 When in the winter habitat, mackerel probably are in mid-depth 

 rather than on bottom or at the surface. 



Migrations. — The population migrates in two divisions: a south- 

 ern contingent that moves shoreward between Chesaj^eake and Dela- 

 ware Bays in April, thence northeastward along the coast to the 

 Gulf of Maine, in the western part of which it spends its summer, 

 returning southward around Cape Cod in late October; and a north- 

 ern contingent that moves shoreward toward the coast of southern 

 New England in late May, thence northeastward across the Gulf of 

 Maine, along the Nova Scotian coast, and into the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence where it spends the summer. This division is believed to 

 emigrate along the Nova Scotian coast and through the western por- 

 tion of the Gulf of Maine (where it supports an important November 

 drift-gill-net fishery) and out to sea past Cape Cod. The northern 

 contingent, when migrating along the Nova Scotian coast in the 

 spring, may be joined by additional members from directly offshore 

 and when leaving in the fall may lose members in an offshore direc- 



