REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 9 
2. THE COLLECTION OF DEFINITE Data RESPECTING THE TIMES OF 
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF VARIOUS FOOD-—FISHES, AND THE 
STATISTICS OF EXPORTATION. 
It has been almost impossible, because of the difficulty of moy- 
ing from place to place, for the commission to secure reliable data 
relative to the times of arrival of the various food fish. But for 
upwards of twenty years, Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, of Woods Hole, 
has kept a careful record, and from this record Mr. George H. 
Sherwood has made the following statement. [The fish generally 
arrive off the shores of Rhode Island several days before their ar- 
‘rival at Woods Hole. | 
On the beginning of April, the average temperature of the water 
is about thirty-seven degrees, and late in the month, when the 
water has reached a temperature of about forty-six degrees, the 
scup make their first appearance. At about the same time the 
menhaden arrive, and the mackerel on several occasions have been 
taken on May Ist, when the average temperature is only forty- 
seven. 
The times of arrival of the blue-fish have been gradually post- 
poned from year to year, until, in 1899, none were taken in Buz- 
zard’s Bay until June 23. In 1878 they arrived as early as the 8th 
of May, when the water has an average temperature of fifty de- 
grees. From 1880 to 1890, the average time of their arrival was 
about one week later, when the water has a temperature of fifty- 
two degrees. From 1890 to 1899, the mean time of thei arrival 
was June 10, when the temperature of the water reaches sixty 
degrees. Of course it is well-known that, whereas twenty years 
ago the blue-fish might have been taken by the hundreds it is now 
captured only in small numbers, or as scattering individuals. 
The squeteague have not departed ‘materially from the mean 
time of their arrival, that is, about May 11, when the water has a 
temperature of fifty-one degrees. The remarkable increase in the 
catch of squeteague is in marked contrast to the decrease in the 
eatch of blue-fish. 
2 
