THE SOUTHERN SPRING MACKEREL FISHERY. 
271 
FURTHER LEGISLATION FOR THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 
Should the present unprecedentedly long period of scarcity of mackerel continue, 
the discussion of further restrictive legislation may be expected. In fact, the aboli- 
tion of the purse seine, which has never been a i)opnlar apparatus with a certain pio- 
portion of the non-fishing poiinlation and with a small number of commercial fishermen 
who have continued the older means of capture, has by some been strongly urged for 
a number of years and seems to be tentatively favored by a growing number of mack 
erel fishermen. Leaving aside the entire question of the effects of purse-seine fishing- 
on the abundance of mackerel, many fishermen think the industry would be in a more 
flourishing condition to-day had the primitive, comparatively inexpensive hook-and- 
line fishing never been discarded for the improved but very expensive modern means. 
Personal contact with numbers of the best-informed and most responsible New 
England fishermen and dealers during recent years has demonstrated the existence 
among some of them of a more conservative sentiment than they have usually been 
credited with as to the possibility of influencing the abundance of ocean fishes by 
overfishing and the desirability of regulating some of the sea fisheries. While few 
among tliem entertain the positive belief that legislation will or can do anything for 
the regeneration of declining ocean fisheries, some think it desirable to test the possible 
benefits of legislation. The economic success which has attended the efforts of the 
United States Commission of Pish and Fisheries to increase by artificial means the 
abundance of such an eminently ocean species as the cod has been a suggestive topic 
to many persons who originally scouted the idea of the feasibility of such an under- 
taking, and the question has been propounded by more than one fisherman why the 
regeneration of the mackerel fishery may not be accomplished by sufficiently extensive 
fish- cultural operations.* 
Should it seem expedient to Congress to again regulate the mackerel fishery, it is 
to be hoped that the restrictive legislation may be so framed as to afford a sufficient 
basis for determining the effects on the abundance of the fish sought to be protected. 
Ten years would seem to be not too long a ])eriod for the operation of a close-time law, 
as the beneficial results of restidctiou, if any occurred, would probably be too insig- 
nificant to appreciate in a shorter time. A question of even greater importance than 
the number of years to be embraced is the length of time in each year when the 
mackerel will be undisturbed. It was urged at the time of the consideration of the 
subject in 1885-1887 that the proposed law would afford only incomplete protection to 
fish prior to the spawning season. It seems probable that, as a rule, a large propor- 
tion of the mackerel which come on our coast spawn after the 1st of June. 
Should Congress be solicited to renew legislation for this fishery, therefore, cogni- 
zance should be taken of these facts in order to secure such action as will best 
determine the utility of legislation for the ocean fisheries. 
*In an article published in the Report of the U. S. Fish Commission for 1898, Dr. .1. Percy Moore 
has pointed out the services which the mackerel fishermen may render to fish-culture by fertilizing 
the eggs and returning them to the sea when schools of ripe hsh are caught in purse seines. 
