[49] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



tucket. The mackerel are first encountered off Chesapeake and Dela- 

 ware Bays, from 20 to 50 miles from the land, and gradually move north- 

 ward, followed by the fleet. When off the coasts of New Jersey, Long 

 Island, and Block Island, the fish usually draw closer in to the land, 

 frequently approaching within one or two miles of the shore. During 

 the summer and fall months the principal seining ground for mackerel is 

 in the Gulf of Maine, from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Cod; the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Mount Desert Rock, Matinicus Bock, Monhegan Island, 

 Cape Elizabeth, Boon Island, and Massachusetts Bay being favorite 

 localities. Good catches of mackerel are frequently made in summer on 

 George's Bank and, within the i ast few years, near Block Island. 

 Though mackerel have, at times, been taken in seines iu the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence, so little, comparatively, has been done in this locality that it 

 can scarcely be classed among the grounds generally resorted to by the 

 mackerel seiners. In a large majority of cases the mackerel schooners 

 which have gone to the gulf within the last four or five years have met 

 with decided failures, and in 1880 several returned home from there 

 without a single barrel of fish. 



12. — The fishermen. 



The mackerel fleet contains a larger percentage of American-born 

 fishermen than any other. The 1 13 mackerel vessels from Gloucester 

 are manned by 1,438 men, of whom 821 are Americans; 322 Provincials; 

 24 British, most of whom are Irish ; 39 Scandinavians; 6 French; and 

 13 Portuguese. The mackerelmen belonging to other ports iu Massa- 

 chusetts and on the coast of Maine have a still larger percentage of 

 Americans in their crews, most of the vessels being manned entirely by 

 natives of New England. Many of the Gloucester fishermen, engaged 

 in the mackerel fishery, are, in winter, employed in the haddock fishery, 

 in the Georges cod fishery, or in the fresh halibut fishery. Many others, 

 like those from Provincetown and Maine, do not go to sea in winter. 

 The winter herring trade is carried on almost entirely by the mackerel 

 schooners and their crews from Gloucester and Maine, and the winter 

 oyster business is, in the same manner, monopolized by the Cape Cod 

 and Portland mackerel vessels, while some of them enter into the busi- 

 ness of bringing fruit from the West Indies to the United States. 



13. — The vessels. 



The mackerel fleet is made up of 4G8 vessels, which pursue this fish- 

 ery to a greater or less extent. Of these, 235 vessels are employed ex- 

 clusively in catching mackerel between March and November, though 

 some of the fleet do not start before June or July. A large number of 

 these, the best fishing vessels of New England, in winter are engaged in 

 the haddock fishery, in the Georges fishery, in the herring trade, in the 

 oyster trade, and in the West India fruit trade, as well as in the shore 

 cod fishery. 



