62 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
increase of 50, of which there were landed from Georges 64 trips, 
from South Channel 272, and from Western Bank 40. This fleet 
also marketed at Portland 5,830,603 pounds of fish, a large portion 
of which was taken on Western Bank during the spring months. 
-The principal species taken by otter trawlers is haddock, although 
cod, cusk, and hake are sometimes caught in considerable quan- 
tities, especially cod. In 1914 the amount of haddock landed at 
Boston by otter trawlers was 14,832,950 pounds, exceeding that of 
the preceding. year by 2,254,518 pounds. Of the total catch of this 
species in 1913 the quantity of scrod amounted to 2,144,062 pounds, 
and in 1914 to 4,176,950 pounds. 
On June 16, 1915, the otter trawler Long [sland landed at Port- 
land 280,000 pounds of fish, and on July 1 the same vessel brought 
in a fare of 300,000 pounds. These are the largest fares ever taken 
by an American otter trawler. 
THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 
The catch of fresh and salted mackerel in 1914 exceeded that of 
the previous year by 27,139 barrels, made up of 19,427 barrels fresh 
and 7,712 salted. The yield on the Cape Shore and in the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence was 4,961 barrels, an increase of 3,017 barrels over 
1913. The southern mackerel fishery in the spring of 1915 showed 
an improvement over 1914, the highest stock made by a single vessel 
up to the end of May was $8,885, which is said to be the largest made 
in the southern fishery since 1907. The southern fleet consisted of 
42 vessels, 25 seiners and 17 netters, sailing from Boston, Gloucester, 
and Rockport, Mass. The first trip of mackerel was captured about 
100 miles east by south from Cape Henlopen and landed at Lewes, 
Del., on April 9, and the first mackerel landed at Boston and Glou- 
cester from the Cape Shore was on June 7, immediately followed by 
the arrival of 10 other vessels from that region. They reported many 
schools of fish off the coast of Nova Scotia, between Liverpool and 
Halifax. By the end of the month several of the Cape Shore fleet 
had landed two trips from that ground, and one vessel reported to be 
on her third trip. It is seldom that a second trip of mackerel is 
secured on the Cape Shore in the early part of the season. At this 
time there was also a considerable body of mackerel off Block 
Island and in the vicinity of Nantucket Shoals, frequent fares being 
landed at Newport and Boston from those grounds. As was the 
case in the early part of the mackerel season of 1914, a large quantity 
of small fish was taken along the coast from Cape Cod to the Gulf 
of Maine. 
THE SWORDFISH FISHERY. 
Swordfish were less plentiful in 1914 than for several years. The 
quantity landed at Boston and Gloucester by American fishing vessels 
was 1,499,844 pounds fresh, valued at $177,669, being 881,076 pounds 
and $18,208 less than in 1913. In the last few years a considerable 
fleet of Canadian vessels has been engaged in catching swordfish 
out of Nova Scotia ports, and much of this catch is shipped to the 
United States. The foreign receipts of swordfish at Boston in 1914 
amounted to 4,555 fish, or 144 fish less than were received in 1913. 
