THE SPANISH MACKEREL FISHERY. 

 By R. EDWARD BAELL. 



1. THE FISHING GROUNDS. 



Spanish mackerel may be taken with trolling-hooks along almost any portion of the Atlantic 

 coast between Key West, Florida, and Long Island, New York ; but as this method of fishing is 

 practically restricted to a few localities the troll-line catch is quite unimportant. Enough are 

 caught, however, to show that the species occurs, and to indicate that the fishing grounds may be 

 considerably extended in the future. 



Professor Goode states, upon the authority of Thaddeus Norris, that in the Gulf of Mexico 

 they are sometimes taken by means of hook and line with shrimp bait, at the ends of the long piers 

 where the steamboats land in going from Mobile to New Orleans, and that they are so abundant 

 on the Gulf coast of Florida, as to be shipped in considerable numbers from Cedar Keys. Since 

 the statement by Mr. Norris, a careful study of the fisheries of the Gulf has been made by Mr. 

 Silas Stearns, of Pensacola, Fla., under the direction of the United States Fish Commission and 

 the Census Office. The reports forwarded by him lead us to believe that, whatever may have been 

 the catch of the past, that of 1880 was so small as to be of little commercial importance, though 

 this is perhaps due te a lack of suitable apparatus of capture rather than to any scarcity of the 

 mackerel. 



Off the eastern coast of Florida a few are lauded by a smack fishing for the Savannah market. 

 Off Charleston small numbers are secured by the crews of the vessels employed in the blackfish 

 fishery, who claim to see occasional schools of mackerel, and think that in case they should make a 

 practice of fishing for them considerable quantities could be secured. 



On the" North Carolina coast there are no summer vessel fisheries, and but few boats fish along 

 the outer shore, none using methods suited to catching the mackerel. Parties fishing with seines 

 along the inner bays caught few of these fish prior to 1879. During this season they are said to 

 have been quite plenty for a short time, and many were taken by the fishermen, who, being unac- 

 quainted with the species, did not recognize its value, and, instead of saving their mackerel, threw 

 the greater part of them away. Some, however, were taken to Wilmington, but the dealers refused 

 to purchase them, thinking them to be a species of horse mackerel, which they supposed to be ot 

 little value for food. 



Chesapeake Bay has by far the most extensive fishery for Spanish mackerel in the United 

 States ; the other fisheries, in order of importance, being those of Sandy Hook, Southern Long 

 Island, and Narragansett Bay. Few are taken on the southern coast of New Jersey, as little 



fishing is done along the outer shore. Some are, however, secured by the vessels trolling in the 

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