FISH AND FISHERIES OF EAST SUFFOLK. 



377 



affect the natural economy of the species. Mr. W. A. Dutt* 

 gives a graphic account of a glut of Mackerel at Lowestoft in 

 the winter of 1897, an unusual time of the year for such an 

 occurrence: — "In the winter of 1897," he writes, "when the 

 Mackerel season w T as at its busiest, almost unprecedented catches 

 of fish were landed on the wharves. Soon after dawn during 

 those winter days the drifters [Herring ?] came sailing in, and 

 often by ten o'clock in the morning the Waveney Dock was so 

 full of boats that the fish had to be heaped on the trawl-market. 

 And still the heavily laden craft kept crowding in, until there 

 was hardly a pier or jetty that had not a score of boats along- 

 side. Day after day similar scenes were witnessed. ... So 

 close to the shore were the Mackerel shoals that the drifters 

 were in port in little more than an hour after they had hauled 

 in their nets, and then it was often hours before the catches were 

 landed. ... In early spring many of the Lowestoft boats . . . 

 join the Cornish boats engaged in Mackerel fishing off Land's 

 End and the Scilly Isles." 



I am not prepared here to enter largely into the matter of 

 temperatures of the German Ocean, which vary in successive 

 years ; but temperature and the varying strength of the tides 

 undoubtedly greatly govern the peregrinations of all marine 

 creatures, and an abundance of food naturally controls the 

 movements of those creatures which prey upon it. The spring 

 and summer of 1906 were exceedingly interesting to me by 

 reason of the many species of crustaceans and fishes that came 

 to hand. My note-book for that year was crowded with "in- 

 stances " and " finds." Herring-syle and the smaller crustaceans 

 were legion. The autumn saw many rare ichthyological visitors 

 on our shores ; among these was the rare Scomber thunnina, 

 hitherto unrecorded for British waters. Off Lowestoft were cap- 

 tured two Thresher Sharks (in September), and another off 

 Yarmouth. Unusually big tides set in on a north-west wind on 

 the springs — a rather abnormal circumstance — and I noted an 

 invasion of Sprats early in October. Probably these causes 

 contributed to a great influx of Mackerel off the East Coast in 

 May, 1906. The 'Yarmouth Mercury' of May 26th thus refers 

 to this : — " A good many years ago the East Coast Mackerel 



; ' Vide ' Highways, Byways, and Waterways of East Anglia,' p. 135. 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIII. , October, 1900. 2 G 



