REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [14] 



coast this season as was a great benefit to all our Plantations, since one 

 Boat with three men would take iu a week ten hogsheads, which were 

 sold at Connecticut for £3 12,s. Qd. per hogshead." 



Their abundance has varied greatly from year to year, and at times 

 their numbers have been so few that grave apprehensions have been 

 felt lest they should soon depart altogether. 



As early as 1070, laws were passed by the colony of Massachusetts 

 forbidding the use of certain instruments of capture, and similar ordi- 

 nances have been passed from time to time ever since. The first re- 

 source of our State governments has always been, in seasons of scarcity, 

 to attempt to restore fish to their former abundance by protective legis- 

 lation. It seems to us at the present day absurd that the Massachusetts 

 people should have supposed that the use of shore-seines was extermi- 

 nating the mackerel on the coast of Massachusetts, but it is a fair ques- 

 tion whether their apprehensions were not as well grounded as those of 

 legislators of the present century who have endeavored to apply a sim- 

 ilar remedy for a similar evil. In connection with the chapter on the 

 mackerel fishery will be shown a diagram, which, by means of curves, 

 exhibits the catch of mackerel in New England for a period of seventy- 

 five years. 



From a study of this it seems quite evident that the periods of their 

 abundance and scarcity have alternated with each other without refer- 

 ence to overfishing or any other causes which we are prepared to un- 

 derstand. In the year 1831, 383,548.V barrels of mackerel were inspected 

 in Massachusetts. In 1881 the number of barrels inspected was 269,495 ; 

 to this, however, should be added 12."), 000 barrels caught and marketed 

 fresh by the Massachusetts fleet, making an aggregate of 394,495 barrels. 

 The fluctuations in the catch year by year from 1804 to 1881 are shown 

 most instructively in a plate accompanying this report. 



The total catch of mackerel by the New England fishermen in 1880 

 amounted to 131,939,255 pounds; while the Canadian catch (according 

 to official returns, barrels being estimated to contain 300 pounds, cans, 

 one and one-half pounds of fresh round fish) was 70,271,260 pounds, 

 making an aggregate of 202,210,515 pounds. The yield of New England 

 in 1881 is estimated to have exceeded that of 1880 by 10,000,000 pounds. 

 We have no means at present for estimating the decrease of the Cana- 

 dian catch, but it is perhaps safe to put it at 11,000,000. This brings 

 the catch of 1881 to about 201,000,000 pounds. In addition to this, at 

 least 100,000 barrels or 20,000,000 pounds, according to estimates from 

 competent authority, were thrown away by the New England fleet. This 

 brings the total weight of mackerel caught up to 221,000,000, represent- 

 ing 294,667,000 fish, if the weight be estimated at three-quarters of a 

 pound each. The catch of mackerel in the waters of Europe does not 

 probably exceed ten per cent, of this quantity. 



The stories which are told by experienced fishermen of the immense 

 numbers of mackerel sometimes seen are almost incredible. Capt. King 



