304 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



announcement of the intention of a number of menhaden fishermen to employ their steamers and 

 nets in the mackerel fishery. It was the impression among these men that the mackerel were to be 

 used for the manufacture of oil and guano, but this has been denied by Uapt. David T. Church and 

 other representative men, who, reasonably enough, state that they could not afford to use so valu- 

 able a fish for this purpose, and who claim that they have an undoubted right to use their steamers 

 in the capture of mackerel for sale fresh in the markets and for pickling. 



As a matter of record we reproduce the following paragraphs from an editorial in the Cape 

 Ann Advertiser, July 14, 1882 : 



"It is not a difficult matter to anticipate the result if this class of steamers engage in this 

 branch of the fisheries. There is no reason to doubt their ability to catch almost or quite as many 

 mackerel as they have formerly caught menhaden. Several of them are large, capable of carry- 

 ing 2,800 barrels of fish in bulk. These carry a double gang of men, and apparatus to correspond. 

 During moderate weather, when mackerel generally school the best, and sailing vessels find it diffi- 

 cult to move, these steamers can play around the fleet of schooners, catch almost every fish that 

 shows itself, aud carry them away to be used, not for food-fish as they were intended, but for oil 

 and guano, to enrich a few men at the expense of many. 



"If the steamers were to engage in the mackerel fishery, selling their catch for food, and were 

 obliged to spend the requisite time for dressing them, which would debar them from an overcatch 

 and carrying them to market, thus placing them on somewhat equal footing with the other 

 fishermen, there could be no reasonable objection to their employment; but it certainly seems, in 

 view of this startling innovation, that some decided action should be taken by ' the powers that 

 be' to prevent the catch of mackerel for the purpose of manufacturing oil and guano. They are 

 altogether too valuable for such a purpose, and the risk of breaking up the schools and driving 

 them almost entirely from our waters, as has been the case with menhaden, is altogether too great. 



" Unless some action is taken, aud taken at once, and stringent laws enacted, we may confi- 

 dently look forward to the destruction in a few years of one of the important industries of New 

 England and the permanent and serious injury of large communities which now derive a consid- 

 erable part of their support from the mackerel fishery." 



7. STATISTICS OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



1. STATISTICS OF THE FISHING FLEET AND PRODUCTS OF THE FISHERY IN 1880. 



BY K. E. EARLL. 



From the earliest settlement of the country the mackerel fisheries have been extensively pros- 

 ecuted by a large number of people living along the New England coast, as well as by many of the 

 inhabitants of the British Provinces. The catch has varied greatly from time to time, and seasons 

 of extreme plenty have often been followed by those of remarkable scarcity. Various theories have 

 been advanced to account for this fluctuation. Many have been inclined to attribute it to overfis'h- 

 ing, or to the apparatus employed in the fishery, while others claim that the movements of the fish 

 are affected by natural causes, such as temperature, currents, the presence or absence of food, and 

 the like, over which man has little or no control. Whatever the causes that influence the move- 

 ments of the fish the fact of great variation in the abundance of the species from time to time 

 remains. 



In 1804, according to the returns of the various fish inspectors, 8,079 barrels of mackerel were 



