402 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8] 
merly 8 to 10 miles from land, where they remain beyond the reach of 
gill-nets and pounds. 
Many of the fishermen of Chesapeake Bay never saw the species prior to 
1875, though there are authentic records showing that individuals were 
occasionally taken in the haul-seines along the Eastern Shore as early as 
1860, and hauls of between one and two hundred are reported by Dr. 
J. T. Wilkins in 1866. It is, however, very easy to explain the igno- 
rance of the fishermen as to the abundance of the species in that region, 
for, until recently, the fisheries of the Chesapeake appear to have been 
of small commercial importance, having been prosecuted only during 
the spring and fall by means of gill-nets and haul-seines. During the 
summer months, when the mackerel are most plenty, no fishing of im- 
portance was done. Pound-nets were introduced into the Chesapeake 
region in 1875, and it was through their use that the fishermen came to 
know of the abundance of the species in these waters. 
On the North Carolina coast most of the fishermen, and, indeed, a ma- 
jority of the dealers, are still unacquainted with either the name or the 
value of the mackerel, and when, in 1879, several thousand pounds of: 
them were brought to Wilmington the dealers refused to buy them, sup- 
posing them to be a species of horse-mackerel (Orcynus), which they un- 
derstood had no value as a food-fish. As no purchasers could be found 
for them they were finally thrown away. Farther south few have been 
taken, owing to the lack of suitable apparatus as well as to the fact that 
the fishermen seldom fish beyond the inlets. The smack fishermen of 
Charleston catch a few on troll-lines during the pleasant weather of the 
spring and early summer, but they fish only occasionally in this way. 
Though the fishing is at present limited to certain localities, there is 
no reason to believe that the fish are absent from other places; on the 
contrary, it seems probable that, should proper apparatus be employed, 
the species could be taken at almost any point along the outer shore 
where the menhaden are abundant. 
In the Chesapeake region there seems to be no diminution in the 
catch; on the contrary, it has increased rapidly from year to year, until 
in 1879 it amounted to fully 1,000,000 pounds, and in 1880 the quantity 
was increased to 1,609,663 pounds. The average daily catch for the 
pound-nets about Cherrystone, Va., is fully 500 fish; while as many as 
4,000 have been taken at a single “lift”, and hauls of 2,500 are not un- 
common during the height of the season. At Sandy Hook the catch 
is quite large; in 1879, 3,500 pounds were taken at one haul in a pound- 
net at Seabright, and the average stock for the pound-nets in that 
locality often exceeds $1,000 for mackerel alone, while the catch of other 
species is proportionately large. 
We see no reason for believing that the present enormous catch will 
have any serious effect upon the future abundance of the species; for, 
assuming that the fish are plenty all along the coast, the catch, though 
extensive at certain points, must be insignificant in comparison with the 
