[Ill] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY 



In 1873, 12 or 15 vessels from 15 to 25 tons were employed at Portland; 

 at present the number at this port is 18, and quite a fleet of the rnaek- 

 erel-draggers also belongs to the vicinity of Friendship, Me.* 



Along the southern coast of Nova Scotia, and about the vicinity of 

 the Straits of Canso, there is an extensive gill-net fishery for mackerel 

 carried on with stationary nets, and, in a smaller degree, a similar fish- 

 ery is prosecuted in some parts of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.! This 

 fishery on the Nova Scotia coast is prosecuted when the mackerel are 

 traversing the coast line in the spring and fall. 



''During the mackerel fishing season," remarks Mr. J. Matthew Jones, 

 "the people along shore appear to live in a state of much excitemlnt, 

 expecting every hour the 'rims' to come into their bays. The traveler 

 who may desire a horse and wagon to get on from place to place will 

 find hard work to prevail upon the people to hire one out to him with a 

 driver. Lookouts are kept on some elevated spot so that the schools 

 .maybe seen some distance off in order to gwe time for the fishermen to 

 get off in their boats with the net." As at Provincetown, these nets 

 are anchored only at one end, the other end being left free to swing with 

 the current. They are sometimes set as far as ten or twelve miles from 

 the shore, in water 20 to 50 fathoms in depth, care being taken to put 

 them as nearly as possible in those localities which are known to lie in 

 the "track" of the mackerel. 



The mackerel gill-nets are usually set with their upper lines close to 

 the surface; sometimes, however, as much as 2 or 3 fathoms below. 

 The position of the net in the water is regulated by the length of the 

 buoy-ropes and the weight of the sinkers. As a rule, especially on the 

 coast of Nova Scotia, they are, however, set close to the surface. 



In this region also there has been for many years an extensive seine 

 fishery for mackerel corresponding to that which is elsewhere referred 

 to as having been formerly carried on, two hundred and fifty years ago, 

 on the shores of Cape Cod Bay. The principal points for the seine fish- 

 ery are at Margaret's Bay, west of Hahfax, and at Chedabucto Bay, at 

 the eastern part of Nova Scotia. . 



Perley, writing in 1852, remarked: "In those harbors of Nova Scotia 

 which are within the Straits of Canso mackerel have of late years been 

 taken in seines capable of inclosing and securing 800 barrels, and in 

 these seines 400 and even 600 barrels have been taken in a single sweep." f 



In the same locality Perley refers to the use of the drift-nets, un- 

 doubtedly meaning the set gill-net just described, remarking, however, 



* Friendship has 12 vessels, Cushing 5, Waldoboro' 2, and Booth Bay and Bremen 1 

 each; the total from Maine, including those from Portland, being 39; the tonnage is 

 559.47; nnmber of men, 133. 



t Schooner "Yankee Lass," of Boston, arrived homo last week from a season's mack- 

 ereling trip around the Seven Islands of Saint Lawrence River, with 300 barrels, all 

 large No. 1 mackerel, taken in [gill] nets. — (Cape Ann Advertiser, September 30, 

 1881.) 



J Fisheries of New Brunswick, 1852, pp. 13-ie. 



