[13] THE SPANISH MACKEREL. 407 
line with shrimp bait, at the ends of the long piers where the steam- 
boats land in going from Mobile to New Orieans, and that they are so 
abundant on the Gulf coast of Florida, as to be shipped in considerable 
numbers from Cedar Keys. Since the statement by Mr. Norris, a care- 
ful study of the fisheries of the Gulf has been made by Mr. Silas Stearns, 
of Pensacola, Fla., under the direction of the United States Fish Com- 
mission and the Census Office. The reports forwarded by him lead us 
to believe that, whatever may have been the catch of the past, that of 
1880 was so small as to be of little commercial importance, though this 
is perhaps due to a lack of suitable apparatus of capture rather than to 
any scarcity of the mackerel. 
Off the east coast of Florida a few are landed by a smack fishing for 
the Savannah market. Off Charleston small numbers are secured by the 
crews of the vessels employed in the blackfish fishery, who claim to see 
occasional schools of mackerel, and think that in case they should make 
a practice of fishing for them considerable quantities could be secured. 
On the North Carolina coast there are no summer vessel fisheries, and 
but few boats fish along the outer shore, none using methods suited to 
catching the mackerel. Parties fishing with seines along the inner bays 
caught few of these fish prior to 1879. During this season they are 
said to have been quite plenty for a short time, and many were taken 
by the fishermen, who, being unacquainted with the species, did not 
recognize its value, and, instead of saving their mackerel, threw the 
greater part of them away. Some, however, were taken to Wilmington, 
but, as has already been stated, the dealers refused to purchase them, 
thinking them to be a species of horse-mackerel, which they supposed 
to be of little value for food. 
Chesapeake Bay has by far the most extensive fishery for Spanish 
mackerel in the United States; the other fisheries, in order of impor- 
tance, being those of Sandy Hook, Southern Long Island, and Narra- 
gansett Bay. Tew are taken on the southern coast of New Jersey, as 
little fishing is done along the outer shore. Some are, however, secured 
by the vessels trolling in the vicinity of Barnegat Inlet, and the men- 
haden fishermen of Tuckerton occasionally catch them in their purse- 
seines. 
The commercial fishery is of recent origin, and it is only within the 
past few years that any considerable quantities have been taken for 
market. The fishery practically began off the New Jersey coast in 1873, 
and the mackerel were first extensively taken in Chesapeake Bay in 1875. 
This fact has little or no significance in its bearing upon the abundance 
of the fish, for the increased catch is almost wholly accounted for in both 
localities by the change in the methods of fishing. 
9.—APPARATUS AND METHODS OF CAPTURE. 
Three kinds of apparatus are used in the Spanish mackerel fishery, 
namely, the trolling-line, the gill-net, and the pound-net. The trolling- 
