372 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
18. Scomber scombrus Linnaeus. Boston Mackerel. 
Occurs regularly in spring, and is one of the most important species taken in the 
pouud nets at that season. Stragglers occur throughout the summer, and at times 
good catches have been made in August. Small numbers are sometimes taken in 
October, as the fish are withdrawing from the coast. In spring they arrive in 
schools and appear to come from the south, as shown by their capture first in the 
southernmost pound nets and in the others in regular order. They migrate slowly, 
both when in large schools and when in small bunches. In good weather they swim 
at the rate of 6 to 10 miles a day and seem to be leisurely feeding; in stormy weather, 
however, the runs appear to pass the pound nets more rapidly. 
In spring, mackerel and shad are taken at the same time. It often happens that 
a large run of the two species is coincident. In 1891, in one week, about the 1st of 
May, 1,500 mackerel were taken in one net in Monmouth County, and during the same 
time 1,200 shad were caught. Exeptionally large lifts of mackerel are seldom made, 
for the reason that the schools usually keep well off the shore and the pound nets 
may be regarded as securing only the stragglers. The largest single catch of mackerel 
along this shore in recent years was 1,100 fish, caught in the pound net of Mr. Herbert 
Johnson at Galilee in May, 1891. 
The monthly catch of mackerel in one net in 1891 and two nets in 1892, set off 
the shore of Monmouth County, was as follows : 
Months. 
1891. 
1892. 
April - 
Number. 
^ 4 
Number. 
190 
492 
12 
2 
14 
June 
July 
August 
31 
Total 
1,909 710 
A great proportion of the mackerel caught are large, weighing 2£ to 3 pounds. 
They bring good prices in the New York market, to which place nearly the entire 
catch is shipped. The average wholesale price was about 26 cents in 1891 and 33 
cents in 1892. 
The testimony of the fishermen as to the spawning condition of the mackerel is 
unanimously to the effect that the fish are not ripe when they arrive on this coast in 
spring. While the fish are nearly all shipped round and the fishermen do not have 
the best opportunities for determining the actual condition of the reproductive organs, 
the eggs and milt have never been observed to run from the fish when caught or when 
thrown into the boats; and the fishermen who have at times dressed considerable 
numbers of the fish state that the ova have always appeared hard and immature. 
Opinion is divided as to the probable effect of the resumption of the southern 
mackerel fishery on the abundance of fish on the New Jersey coast. Some fishermen 
who have been in the pound-net fishery for many years think that the suspension of 
the capture of mackerel in the southern waters resulted in an appreciable increase in 
the supply in New Jersey. They state that ten years ago and prior thereto very few 
mackerel were caught, and that in the last three or four years there have been more 
than ever. Others, however, with equal experience, think that the mackerel are no 
