FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 
59 
MACKEREL (Scomber scombrus) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 4^ 
1 he Mackerel is a member of the Mackerel 
family, which includes the Tuna, the Bonito, the 
Kingfish, and the Wahoo, or Peto. It ranges as 
far south as Hatteras and as far north as the 
Straits of Belle Isle, and, being a shore-loving fish, 
does not wander far to sea. It first appears on the 
Hatteras coast in the early spring, and gradually 
migrates north, its migration seeming to be regu¬ 
lated by the fluctuation of water temperature. 
Schools 20 miles long and half a mile wide have 
been sighted. In the seventies an international 
dispute arose regarding the migration of these 
fishes. Our Government took the position that the 
Mackerel do not come from deep water offshore to 
warmer water inshore, but that they are first found 
in the spring off Cape Henry and can be followed 
day by day as they move, in countless hordes, 
northward to Maine and Nova Scotia. Canada 
held that they came inshore from deep water off¬ 
shore. The American viewpoint has been proven 
correct. 
The spawning season for the Mackerel extends 
from May to July. The spawning grounds are in 
rather deep water off the coast, stretching between 
Long Island Sound and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
Prior to spawning the fish are lean and their flesh 
is of poor texture, but after that task is over they 
get fine and fat, being regarded as among the best 
fishes in Atlantic waters. 
The food of the Mackerel consists of small 
crustaceans. Lobster spawn, and the “small fry 
of the seas.” One tiny crustacean favorite is the 
red, spiderlike creature known as “the Boone 
Island bedbug,” and old fishermen declare that 
wherever it is found they can afford to wait, for it is 
bound to bring the Mackerel to its feeding ground. 
Many enemies prey on the Mackerel. The gan- 
nets often eat so many that they are unable to 
rise from the sea to avoid a passing ship until 
they have disgorged several good-sized fish. Por¬ 
poises, whales. Sharks, and Dogfish also are dan¬ 
gerous enemies. Indeed, the last named are some¬ 
times so hungry that they will bite the twine of 
the fishermen’s nets to get inside and prey upon 
the catch at will. They have also been known to 
follow the catch to the very sides of the ships and 
swim around the scuppers and drink the blood 
flowing from the dressing operations aboard the boat. 
The Squids also are enemies. They suddenly 
dart back among the Mackerel with arrowlike 
speed, and, quickly turning to one side, seize a 
victim, sink their sharp beaks into the nape of the 
neck, and kill it almost instantly by severing the 
spinal cord. Sometimes they fail. When they do, 
they drop to the bottom and change their color 
from translucent paleness to that of sand, in order 
to camouflage their presence while waiting for the 
Mackerel to return. The latter usually stay well 
inshore, and are warned of the enemy’s presence, 
for as soon as the Squid gets into too shallow water 
it begins to pump with great energy and to dis¬ 
charge its ink in large quantities. Thousands of 
them are stranded and perish when their eagerness 
for a dinner leads them into shallow water. 
TUNA (Thunnus thynnus) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 45) 
Few fishes have a wider distribution than the 
I una, for it is found in all warm seas. It is pelagic 
in its habits and occurs as far north as Newfound¬ 
land. It is the Tuna of California and the Mediter¬ 
ranean, the Tunny of the British Isles, the great 
Albacore, or Horse Mackerel, of our Atlantic 
waters. It belongs to the Mackerel family, of 
which it is the largest representative. On the 
North Atlantic coast, where Tuna are caught from 
early summer to October, they are large and 
numerous. During one season a single fisherman 
harpooned 30 of them with an average weight of 
I,coo pounds. Some weighing 1,500 pounds have 
been taken. They also are caught on hooks baited 
with Herring attached to heavy lines. 
The European varieties do not attain such size, 
500 pounds being considered about the upper 
limit of their weight. On our California coast they 
are still smaller. 
It is on this coast that they are considered the 
game fish par excellence. Charles F. Holder once 
observed that, weight for weight, the Tuna has 
double the fighting power in it that the Tarpon 
possesses. He called it the tiger of the California 
coast, a living meteor that strikes like a whirlwind 
and plays like a storm. 
In American Atlantic waters the Tuna is found 
from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod. It feeds on Her¬ 
ring, Menhaden, and Bluefish. 
SHAD (Alosa sapidissima) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 46) 
The Shad belongs to the Herring family and is 
an anadromous fish, spending the spring months in 
the rivers, where it spawns, and the rest of the 
year in deep-sea waters. On the Atlantic coast 
it enters all rivers between the St. Johns in Florida 
and the St. John in New Brunswick. Thanks to 
the good work in artificial propagation of the 
United States Bueau of Fisheries, Gulf of Mexico 
and Pacific coast rivers also know this delectable 
food fish to-day. 
Formerly Shad were surprisingly abundant; but 
they have to be taken at spawning time, since 
they are not within reach of human hands at any 
other season; therefore they are especially liable 
to extinction by overfishing. Were it not for pro¬ 
tective laws and artificial propagation, they would 
probably have disappeared almost entirely before 
now. The success of artificial propagation is shown 
by the fact that the Shad has been established 
along 2,000 miles of shore line on the Pacific 
where it never existed before, and that it remains, 
in spite of the heavy toll of overfishing, next to the 
Chinook Salmon, the most important river fish in 
America. But even with artificial propagation 
the catch has been diminishing at an alarming 
rate, having fallen off from 50,000,000 pounds in 
1898 to less than one-half as much in a recent 
year. Overfishing, the placing of dams across 
many rivers, and water pollution have been respon¬ 
sible for the decrease. 
The Shad does not appear to be a migrant from 
warmer to cooler waters with the advent of spring, 
as was formerly supposed. Rather, it seems to go 
out to the deep sea off the mouths of the several 
rivers it spawns in, and to remain there until the 
temperature of the river waters rises to about 60 
degrees. The Shad in southern rivers has black- 
tipped back and tail fins, which is a mark absent in 
those visiting northern rivers. 
d'he young fry, hatched out In the rivers, stay 
