CXVIII REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OP PISH AND FISHERIES. 
liable service in making personal explanations of matters affecting the 
fisheries in North Atlantic waters. 
This treaty, when submitted to the Senate, was not ratified. It is, 
however, noteworthy that the modus vivendt attached to it is to con- 
tinue for two years, and this provision will probably have more or less 
influence upon such fisheries as are liable to be affected by it. 
Scarcity of mackerel . — The common mackerel (Scomber scombrus ), 
which constitutes one of the most important objects of fishery in the 
North Atlantic, was exceptionally scarce during the season of 1888,* and, 
so far as could be judged from the amount taken, its lack of abundance 
was even more marked than during the previous year, though that also 
was considered an unusually bad season for mackerel fishermen. 
The cruise on the southern mackerel grounds made by the Grampus 
in the spring of 1888 — during the closing months of the last fiscal 
year — developed the fact of an alarming scarcity of mackerel, and in 
a measure prepared the fishing interests for the conditions met with 
later in the season. Nevertheless, though the fleet was not so large 
as on previous years, many vessels engaged in the fishery, the failure 
of which has entailed much financial loss upon those sections most 
largely interested in this industry. The result has been particularly 
unfavorable in its influence upon small fishing communities which have 
depended largely on the mackerel fishery. In some cases the effect 
upon these has been disastrous and discouraging, and places heretofore 
prosperous have received a check that it may take many years to recover 
from, if, indeed, their interests in the fisheries are not in a large measure 
permanently destroyed. 
As in all cases of business disaster, particularly where the conditions 
are not definitely understood, many causes are assigned for the scarcity 
of mackerel, and many methods are suggested to secure their abun- 
dance. It is, perhaps, needless to say that those most prolific in assign- 
ing causes and suggesting remedial measures are often least qualified 
from study and experience to speak on the subject. It is not practicable 
to refer in detail to these matters here. It may suffice to say that the 
cause for the scarcity of mackerel most commonly assigned is the use 
of the purse-seine in their capture, while some have advised not only 
the abandonment of fishing with this form of apparatus, but the entire 
discontinuance of net-fishing of any kind. In view of the fact that the 
mackerel has been celebrated for its erratic habits ; that there have 
been periods of scarcity and abundance ever since the settlement of 
the country; that the destruction of the species was apprehended in 
colonial times, long before the invention of the purse-seine, and re- 
* It is practicable liere to speak only of the seasons or calendar years, since the 
opening of the mackerel season, for vessel fishing, is limited by law to June- 1 of each 
year, and it rarely happens that many fares are landed before June 30. For this rea- 
son the catch of the season of 1888 — June 1 to November — is essentially the product 
of the fiscal year, at least so far as the landing of the vessels’ catch is concerned. 
