[21] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. Ill 



hence also the changes in geographical position and in the depth or zone 

 of the open-sea mackerel grounds.* 



"Inshore the floating and free-swimming food is drifted to and fro by 

 winds and tides, and great accumulations are sometimes thrown up 

 upon the beaches in windrows after storms. This floating and swim- 

 ming food gathers in eddies, either near the coast line or at the junc- 

 tion of opposing tidal waves or currents. Hence, along sheltered and 

 embayed coasts, confronting the open sea in the vicinity of banks where 

 great tidal currents and eddies are formed, or in the gulf and estuary of 

 the Saint Lawrence, where two opposite and wholly different tides drag- 

 ging along the coast-line approach to meet, there will be the mackerel 

 ground of the fishermen, but not necessarily at the surface.''^ 



The winged Pteropods very properly form an important part of mack- 

 erel food, as they sink and rise with changes of the temperature of the 

 zone or sheet of water in which they are feeding. 



5. — Eeproduction. 



Although little is actually known concerning the spawning habits of 

 the mackerel compared with those of fish which, like the shad and the 

 salmon, have been artificially propagated, it is perhaps safe to say that 

 the subject is understood in a general way. The testimony of reliable 

 observers among the fishermen of our coast and the coast of the British 

 Provinces indicates that the spawning takes place in rather deep water 

 all along the shore from the eastern end of Long Island to Eastport, Me., 

 along the coast of Nova Scotia, and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The 

 spawning season occurs in May in southern New England, in May and 

 June in Massachusetts Bay, and in June in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, 

 and on the Bradley Banks and about the Magdalenes early in the month, 

 and, according to Hind, on the northeast coast of Newfoundland toward 

 the end of the month.t 



* There are no mackerel-fisldng grounds within 250 miles or more of the Grand 

 Bank, and certainly none nearer than 400 miles of its southern edge. It Is possible 

 that mackerel have occasionally been seen, or stray specimens captured, nearer the 

 Grand Bank than this, but no mackerel fishermen would think of trying for these fish 

 east of the west coast of Newfoundland. There are but three instances on record where 

 mackerel fishermen have gone so far east as that. Whatever influence may be ex- 

 erted upon other forms of ocean life by the meeting of the Gulf Stream and the 

 Arctic current, it can be quite safely asserted that the mackerel is never found in 

 summer near the junction of these currents, excepting, perhaps, on the southern edge 

 of George's Bank and off the south shoal of Nantucket. These localities are the near- 

 est mackerel-fishing grounds to the Gulf Stream of any on the United States coast. 

 And even here mackerel are rarely or never taken nearer than 40 or 50 miles from the 

 northern edge of the stream. — J. W, Collins. 



t During the entire month of June mackerel are taken in the Bay of Saint Law- 

 rence with roes well developed. Having been engaged in the mackerel fishery in the 

 Gulf for twenty-two consecutive seasons, ten of which I went to the Bay early in 

 June, I has'e therefore had abundant oiiportunity to learn the spawning season of the 

 mackerel in that region. It is my opinion that mackerel spawn in the Gulf of Saint 



