THE SOUTHERN SPRING MACKEREL FISHERY. 199 
of Georges Bank, iu latitude 39° 18' north, longitude 70° 10' west, a region seldom 
visited by mackerel lisliermen. 
In the 1887 southern mackerel hshery, the total catch was about 1,674,600 fresh 
tish, or 8,381 barrels, with a market value of $53,402, and 4,732 barrels of salt fish, 
valued at $33,403. The average stock per vessel engaged was $504 on fresh fish and 
$315 on salt fish. The total number of trips of fresh fish was 100, and the, average 
fare was 84 barrels. 
SUSPENSION OP THE FISHERY BY CONGRESS IN 1887. 
An account of the agitation immediately leading up to the consideration by Con- 
gress of the southern spring mackerel fishery and its suspension by that body, consti- 
tutes a very interesting and important chapter in our fishery history. In order to 
more fully and accurately cover the subject, the principal features of the discussion 
are presented quite fully, including certain correspondence not before made public. 
Tlie question of prohibiting this fishery seems to have first been generally dis- 
cussed iu 1885, and it appears to have originally emanated from the fishermen and 
fish dealers of Maine. It was no doubt suggested by the large catch of mackerel iu 
1885, elsewhere referred to, which resulted in a great waste of fish and in glutting the 
fresh-fish market, and which also iiad an unusually depressing effect on the salt-fish 
trade. Even before the close of the mackerel season the subject seems to have 
received the serious attention of some of the persons most interested, and on Decem- 
ber 1, 1885, the mackerel fishermen and dealers of Portland, Me., sent the following 
letter and petition to the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, through 
a prominent wholesale dealer: 
[Mr. A. M. Smith, Portland, Me., to the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, December 1, 1885.] 
It is the judgment of owners of vessels and the men who man them that it would he greatly to the 
interest of all people who are interested in the mackerel flshery, both as owners and consumers, that 
there should be a Law enacted by the United States prohibiting the importation of such fish by the 
inhabitants of the United States or of any other nation or their dependencies, if such fish are caught 
between February and June of each year, which I think is the spawning season for mackerel ; and the 
Portland Fishery Exchange have taken the initiative in the matter and liave appointed a committee, 
of which I have the honor of being chairman, to draw up a heading for signature, to a petition for the 
consideration of Congress, and it occurred to me that before submitting the same I would send the rough 
draft of same for your consideration, and ask if you would kindly offer any suggestions that may 
occur to you as to the best way to get at the matter. 
It has seemed to me that the petitions which we send ought to go through your honorable body 
of commissioners, and if meeting with your indorsement would more likely meet with attention of 
Congress. We would also like very much to know your idea of the subject, and if it meets with your 
approval. We, as a community of fishing interests, are under great obligations to you for your interest 
in the fishing questions, and especially as opposed to free fish, and trust this question of early South 
mackereling will also receive your careful consideration and, if meeting with your favor, your iullueuce 
iu bringing about the consummation so devoutly to be wished for. 
[Draft of petition from Portlaiui Fishing Exchange asking Congress to prohibit mackerel fishing between 
December 1 and Juno 1.] 
Whereas it does appear to all interested in the fishing industry of the Atlantic coast of the United 
States that the catching of mackerel before they are allowed sufficient time to spawn, for which 
purpose the said fish come upon the coast of New England and Nova Scotia from about May 1 to June 
15, [is injurious] and believing as we do that the tendency of catcliing such fish during said spawning 
season is to depreciate the quality and quantity of such fish and to drive them from our own 
shores; and 
