PART IV. 
THE SWORDFISH FISHERY. 
By G. Brown GooDE. 
1. THE FISHING GROUNDS. 
In the natural history of the swordfish, in Section I of this report is printed a discussion of 
the dates of the appearance of this species in our waters and of its local movements. 
Early in the season the swordfish are most abundant west of Montauk Point, and later they 
spread over the shoal grounds along the coast even as far north as the Nova Scotia Banks. They 
may be found wherever mackerel and menhaden are abundant, as may be inferred from the almost 
universal practice of carrying swordfish irons on board of mackerel vessels. 
I quote the statements of three or four correspondents who have taken the trouble to inter- 
view the fishermen of their respective localities. 
Mr. E. G. Blackford writes: “The season first opens early in June in the neighborhood of 
Sandy Hook, and continues along the coast as far east as Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Shoals 
until about the middle of September. They are said to have been caught as far north as Cape 
Sable. At the first cold wind blowing in September they disappear, and are not found again on 
the coast that-season. This information I received from an old New York swordfisherman, a mau 
whose statements may be relied on.” 
Capt. Benjamin Ashby, of Noank, Conn., informs me that the swordfish vessels of Noank 
and New London are accustomed to leave the home port about the 6th of July, and throughout 
the month they find fish most abundant between Block Island and No Man’s Land; in August 
between No Man’s Land and the South Shoal light-ship. They first meet the fish twenty to twenty- 
five miles southeast of Montauk Point. In August and September they are found on George’s 
Bank. There is no fishing after the snow begins to fly. 
A little farther east is the New Bedford fleet. Capt. I. H. Michaux, of the schooner Yankee 
Bride, tells me that swordfish strike in about Block Island in the middle of June and stay in 
that vicinity until the 15th or 20th of August. North of Cape Cod they are taken up to the 20th 
of October. 
Mr. John H. Thomson, of New Bedford, states that from May 25 to June they are found south 
of Block Island, approaching the Vineyard Sound and the neighboring waters through June and 
to the middle of July. A little later they are more abundant to the southeast of Crab Ledge, and 
after August 1 to the southeast of Cape Cod and George’s Bank. 
The schooner Northern Eagle, of Gloucester, Capt. George H. Martin, when engaged in sword. 
fish fishing, is accustomed to leave Gloucester so as to be on the ground south of Block Island by 
the 10th of June, and the fish are followed as far east as Portland. Mr. Earll ascertained that the 
swordfish are mostly fished for on the coast of Maine from July 1 to September 1. Halibut vessels 
on Ia Have and Sable Island Banks occasionally take these fish upon their lines. 
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