REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
23 
in the middle of the season cause considerable anxiety among fisher- 
men and owners of vessels. 
The summer mackerel grounds extend from Block Island to the 
Strait of Canso. In their search for fish few vessels care to take the 
risk of being absent from the main body of the fleet more than a day 
or two at a time. Occasionally individual vessels will cruise in 
distant localities, but as a rule even the most distant ones keep in 
touch with the fleet. 
Many theories are advanced by fishermen regarding the body of 
fish that suddenly leaves the coast each year. In the opinion of 
many fishermen the introduction of purse seines and gill nets has been 
instrumental in diverting mackerel from their regular course. For- 
merly it was the custom early in July for a large fleet of vessels fitted 
with hooks and lines to repair to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where 
the fishery was successfully carried on until the latter part of October. 
The large quantity of toll bait used was no doubt the means of 
holding the fish on the ground. Mackerel continued to be fairly 
plentiful in that region until vessels ceased to fish with the apparatus 
mentioned and employed seines as a method of capture. Shortly 
after that period mackerel were less plentiful and during the past 
twenty years few fish have been taken in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
In the last two or three years several vessels have visited that region 
in the fall for the purpose of testing the ground with toll bait. The 
result of these experimental trips has led fishermen to believe that 
if toll bait were freely used it would have a tendency to attract 
mackerel to all the grounds along the Atlantic coast. 
The movements of mackerel during the early part of the season of 
1909 were different from those noticed in 1907 and 1908. Usually 
mackerel are first seen about the middle of March in the vicinity of 
Cape Hatteras; but this year, owing to the prevailing rough weather 
on that part of the coast where the fishery is carried on, mackerel 
were not reported until April 17, and few fish were taken until May 
12, when four vessels landed trips in New York, immediately fol- 
lowed by eight other seiners capturing schools off the coast of New 
Jersey. In the latter part of May, few fish being found on the 
southern grounds, and those sighted hard to catch, the seining fleet 
fitted for the Cape Shore, where mackerel had been reported. A 
few hauls were made off that coast on June 7, and fairly good 
fishing was experienced for about two weeks, after which time the 
schools of fish suddenly disappeared. This caused most of the fleet 
to again visit the southern grounds, where fishing was continued until 
the latter part of June. 
Ordinarily the vessels that carry seines capture a great many more 
mackerel than those fitted with gill nets, but this season, since the 
mackerel did not appear at the surface as in previous years, the 
