[121] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



before the first of July annually"; and whereas the said clause, by an 

 act afterwards made and passed by the general assembly [1692-3 Feb. 

 8.], was repealed and made void, which said repeal and the unseasona- 

 ble catching of mack[a]rel thereupon hath been experienced to be very 

 prejudicial to this province, — Be it therefore enacted by His Excellency 

 the Governour, Council and Representatives [convened] in General Court 

 or Assembly, and it is enacted by the authority of the same, That the 

 said clause above-recited shall be and is hereby revived and re-enacted, 

 and that henceforth no person or persons whatsoever shall presume to 

 catch or cause to be caught any inack[a]rel, (except for spending whilst 

 fresh,) before the first of July annually, on penalty of forfeiting all the 

 mack[a]rel so caught contrary to the true intent and meaning of this 

 act, and twenty shillings per barrel over and above for each barrel of 

 the same; the one-half of the said forfeiture to be to her majesty for and 

 towards the support of this her government, and the other half to him 

 or them that shall inform and sue for the same in any of her majesty's 

 courts of record within this province. [Passed November 11, 1702; 

 signed by the Governor and published November 21, 1702.] — (Acts and 

 Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, vol. i, 1092-1714, p. 507.) 



38. — Protests against gigging and seining in the present 



CENTURY. 



1838-9. — Protests against (jigging. — The Boston Journal protests 

 strongly against the barbarous method of taking mackerel called "gig- 

 ging,"* and urges that it is not only liable to censure on the score of hu- 

 manity, but it is also impolitic, and that if this destructive method of 

 fishing is generally coutiuued a few years longer it will break up the 

 fishery. We have for a year or two past entertained a similar opinion, 

 and probably the complaints now so frequently made by the fishermen 

 that, though mackerel are plenty, they " will not bite," is owing to the 

 custom of "gigging." There is hardly anything which possesses life 

 that has so little instinct as not to become very shy under such barbar- 

 ous inflictions. It is obvious that all which are hooked in this manner 

 are not taken on board ; the gig frequently tears out, and thousands, 

 millions of these fish are lacerated by these large hooks and afterwards 

 die in the water.— (Newburyport Herald, Gloucester Telegraph, Sept. 

 23, 1838.) 



The following protest appeared in the Gloucester Telegraph, Wed- 

 nesday, August 7, 1839, it being a quotation from the Salem Register: 



"All the mackerel men who arrive report the scarcity of this fish, and 

 at the same time I notice an improvement in taking them with nets at 

 Cape Cod and other places. If this speculation is allowed to go on with- 

 out being checked or regulated by the government, will not these fish 

 be as scarce on the coast as penguins are, which were so plenty before 



* The method of capture called "gigging" here is undoubtedly gaffing, since a fish- 

 gaff is even yet called a "gig" hy some of our fishermen. 



