THE SOUTHERN SPRING MACKEREL FISHERY. 231 
Mr. Palmer. H' the Senator from New York had allowed me to read a little further he would not 
have made that remark. 
Mr. Miller. Certainly I should have made the remark. 
Mr. Palmer. ^‘Provided, however, That nothing in tliis act shall ho held to apply to mackerel 
caught with hook and line, from boats, and landed in saiil boats, or in traps and weirs connected with 
the shore.” 
Mr. IMiller. Wo understand what that means. That means fishing within the limit of 3 miles 
from the shore. 
Mr. Palmer. 1 think the Senator is mistaken; it is not offshore, it is outside of the 3-mile limit. 
But it does not refer to anything in particular that the committee or the persons Avho are urging 
the bill desired to accomplish ; they are iicrfectly willing to let them fish offshore, inshore, up the 
creeks, anywhere they please, as long as they fish with hook and lino. 
Mr. Miller. So long as they do not catch any fish before the 1st day of .Tune. After the Ist day 
of .June they can fish anywhere, with purse net,s, and take any sized fish, as they have been doing for 
years. Is it not true that that can be done under the bill? 
Mr. Paljier. If the Senator will allow me, I will explain why the limit was put at the 1st day 
of June. There were many who wished to have it put at the Ist of .Inly, but they said they were 
fearful they could not get it through if that limitation was made, and therefore it was fixed at the 
1st of June; but practically it amounts to the same thing, for when the mackerel spawn, between the 
1st of .Tune and the 1st of July, they sink out of sight, they do not appear at all; so that practically 
it is a close season for the females and their progeny up to the 1st of July. 
Mr. Miller. I am very glad to have the Senator make that admission. Then this proposition is 
that there shall be no fishing for mackerel except during the spawning season, and you may then catch 
all yon like. That is a new way of regulating fishing. In the internal Avaters of the United States, 
by the laws of nearly all the States, fishing for the Auarions kinds of fish like trout, bass, and others is 
prevented during the spawning season. Now, the Senator tells us the spawning sea.son for mackerel 
is between the 1st of June and the Ist of July, and that is the time persons are to be allowed to catch 
them, under the bill. 
Mr. Palmer. The Senator is a little too technical. I shall have to go into the history of the 
mackerel from the time he comes on to our shore at ( tape Ilatteras, and follow him up through New 
.lei'sey, up by Block Island, until you land him in the Bay of Fund 3 '. When the mackerel comes on to 
our shores from the Gulf Stream, or from the open sea, or wherever ho may come from, which is not 
already Oistablished, he is poor; both the male and female are poor. The reproductive process has 
commenced aud they are poor ui) to the 1st of July, when the spawn has been distributed and when 
they commence to feed upon the red food along tlie coast in Massachusetts and Maine. Then they 
soon become fat aud a good marketable article. I do not see that the inference which the Senator 
from New York draws can be fiiirly deduced from anything in the bill. 
Mr. Miller. If lhe spawning season begins on the 1st of June and extends until the Ist of July 
or August, in order to make it safe, Avhy does not the committee jirovide in the, bill that there shall 
be no fish landed uiion our shores from the 1st day of August of each year up to aud including certain 
other months, December or January? 
Mr. Palmer. The committee did not provide for it because it was not asked for. 
Mr. Miller. The committee certainly ought to jirovide for what is just and right without any 
regard to what the salt-mackerel men may ask. 
Mr. McPher.son. If the Senator will yield to me a moment, he has described the habits of the 
mackerel striking the coast on the south about Cape Ilatteras. The Senator Avell knows that from 
Cape Ilatteras to the northern coast of Maine, on almost every rod of territory, there are constructed, 
as a sort of permanent investment by the fishermen, weirs aud ponds and places of that kind for the 
convenience aud the profit of the fishermen. 
Mr. Palmer. If the Senator will permit me, that is provided for in the amendment. 
Mr. McPherson. At certain seasons of the jmar there is a run of mackerel, at certain seasons 
there is a ruu of bass, at a certain other period there is a run of Iduefish, and so on. The operation 
of the bill will be to destroy absolutely the occupation of the fishermen during the months of the year 
in which the hill provides that no mackerel shall be caught. 
Mr. Palmer. If the Secretary will read the amendment which relates to traps and weirs the 
Senator from New .lersey will see that it will cure the eAul of which he speaks. The weirs and nets 
