[119] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



Ill— LEGISLATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF 



MACKEREL. 



H.— LAWS, PETITIONS, AND PROTESTS. 



37. — Legislation in the seventeenth and eighteenth cent- 

 uries. 



At an early day in the history of the United States a failure of the 

 mackerel fishery was apprehended. The following notices of legisla- 

 tion, copies of laws, and newspaper extracts will serve to give an idea 

 of the state of public opinion at different periods from 16G0 to the pres- 

 ent time: 



1660. — Early regulation of the mackerel fishery. — The commissioners of 

 the United Colouies recommended to the several general courts to regu- 

 late the mackerel fishery; conceiving that fish to be the most staple 

 commodity of the country. Few, who have not investigated the subject, 

 have at the present day an adequate conception of the importance of 

 this branch of productive industry. — (Freeman's Hist, of Cape Cod, 

 Boston, 1862, vol. i, p. 239.) 



'670. — Prohibition of early mackerel fishing by laws of Plymouth Col- 

 ony. — Wheras wee haue formerly seen Great Inconvenience of taking 

 mackerell att vnseasonable times wherby there encrease is greatly demin- 

 ished and that it hath bine proposed to the Court of the Massachusetts 

 that some course might be taken for preventing the same and that 

 they have lately drawne vp an order about the same this Court doth 

 enacte and order that henceforth noe makerell shalbe caught except for 

 spending while fresh before the first of July Annually on penaltie of 

 the losse of the same the one halfe to the Informer and the other halfe 

 to the vse of the Collonie ; and this order to take place from the 20th of 

 this Instant June. — (Plymouth Colony Records, vol. xi, 1623-1682. Laws, 

 p. 228.) 



1G84. — Prohibition of mackerel seining. — In 1680, Cornet Eobert Stet- 

 son, of Scituate, and Nathaniel Thomas, of Marshfield, hired the Cape 

 fishery for bass and mackerel. In 1684, the court enacted a law " pro- 

 hibiting the seining of mackerel in any part of the colony"; and the 

 same year leased the Cape fishery for bass and mackerel to Mr. William 

 Clark for seven years, at £30 per annum. 



Subsequently to 1700, it is certain that the mackerel were very abun- 

 dant in Massachusetts Bay. It was not uncommon for a vessel to take 

 a thousand barrels in a season. The packing, as it is called, was chiefly 

 done at Boston and Plymouth. — (Deane's History of Scituate, Mass.) 



1692. — Repeal of prohibitory laws in Massachusetts. — And be it further 



