272 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



The experiment of prohibiting the taking of mackerel 

 for five years from 1888 to 1892 can now be viewed from 

 the perspective of eighteen years. The experiment was 

 negative in its results; there is no indisputable proof that 

 the seining of mackerel before or since the passage of the 

 act has ever diminished the body of fish to be taken. 

 Neither is there cause to infer that the five years of protec- 

 tion increased in any appreciable degree the quantity of 

 mackerel in the ocean. The experiment is suggestive of a 

 truth well known to every mackerel fisherman that the 

 agency of man is the least of the causes to diminish the 

 quantity of mackerel in the ocean a quantity that in good 

 seasons and in poor seasons is a thousand times greater 

 than the small amount taken by the fisherman. 



The fresh mackerel fishery which had its beginning in 

 the southern catch of mackerel has been extended in recent 

 years so that many vessels carry ice-houses during the sum- 

 mer months. The fishery is carried on in the Gulf of 

 Maine, on George's and on the southeast coast of New 

 England. The fresh mackerel industry has been on the 

 increase during the last twenty years. The catch from 

 1889 to 1904 averaged about 20,000 barrels; the average 

 for the past nine years has been near 55,000 barrels yearly, 

 that for 1908 being 57,566 barrels. The growth of the 

 fresh mackerel output should be kept in mind when ac- 

 counting for the decline in the salt mackerel catch ; during 

 the seven years ending with 1908 the New England catch 

 of salt mackerel was 211,000 barrels, and the catch of fresh 

 mackerel was 384,860 barrels. 1 However, a comparative 

 view of the total catch of mackerel for different periods of 

 years does not account for the decadence of the mackerel 

 industry as a whole. 



Mention already has been made of the change that has 

 taken place in the mackerel fishery in regard to the de- 



i Compiled from the Boston Fish Bureau Reports. 



