The Monitor., 1890-04-11
MACKEREL FROM AFRICA.

Inc Baltimore lSn mmlSsIon men
are greatly interested in six barrels Of
mackerel which will arrive tomorrow
morning on the Merchants and Miners
Line steamship from Boston The fish are
consigned to G. F. Eareckson s. Co, 221
South street, and are part Of the first skip
ment Of mackerel from Africa to A merica,
and tell story of American enterprise.
For some time past the quantity of Ameri-
can mackerel has been on the decrease,
until now there are not enough of the fish
caught to supply the demand, and Ireland
and Norway have had to be drawn on to
make up the deficiency. The annual catch
has fallen from $50, 900 barrels in 1884 to
about 26, 600 barrels in 1889, and prices
have advanced from 1926 to 50 per barrel
to s1S to s26 per barrel. For more than
two years Ireland and Norway have been
depended upon for the best grades of
mackerel, Norway sending about 1000
barrels a year to s, 600 barrels from Ireland.
While the same in appearance as the Amer
lean fish, they are larger and of better
quality, those coming from Norway being
the best.
The cause of the fish leaving American
shores las been problem which the scien-
fists have bothered their brains over in
vain as far as any practical results are con-
cerned, and as there are over SIS, 900, 600
invested in the fishing industry Of the New
England states the question was serious
one. The fishermen believe that seining
was in no small way accountable for it.
Prior to 1880 it was the custom to bait the
fish and then to catch then with hook and
line. This, however, was too slow for the
Yankee sshustler,D and immense drag nets
were used, which would incIose whole
schools and haul them in by the hundreds
Of thousands. This, it is thought, has had
the effect of soaring them away, and it is
believed that those nov caught of Ireland
and Norway are the same that frequented
American shores, and those caught off the
coast of Africa are the 'sbull-eyes" which
were caught off Cape Cod in great num-
bers about two years ago.
Last summer few of the old fishermen
studied the matter out, and decided that
mackerel ought to be found somewhere in
the neighborhood of the Cape of Good
Hope. Accordingly the schooner Alice, of
Prineetown. Mass, was fitted out in Sep
tember for six months cruise to the
coast of Africa on search for maekerel,
and few days ago arrived at her home
with thirty-three casks, holding about
three barrels each of No. mackerel, which
had been caught off the Cape OF Good Hope
by New England fishermen, and cured and
packed on New England fishing boat.
They were opened for inspection in Prov
ineetowD, and were examined by a large
crowd of the local fishermen, who pro-
nounced them fully equal to if not better
than their own fish.
In speaking of the fish the Gloucester
{Mass.) Times said: I'm quality they are
about thirteen to fifteen inches long, and
the flesh is firm and white. The only way
they differ from American mackerel is in
the stripes, which come a little lower
down on the sides of the fish, something
like the bull-eye mackerel caught off this
coast several years ago. They are much
superior to mackerel caught on the Amer
lean coast in the early spring. One thou
sand dollars was offered for the lot un-
opened in Boston and refused. Everything
goes TO show that scientific men and shoal-
water sailors who have hardly been out of
sight of land were sadly mistaken in their
prediction that Capt. ST Chase i'll the
schooner Alice was going on wiid-goose
chase. To Provincetown, and TO Capt.
Chase in particular. is due the honor of
opening up an entirely new mackerel fish
ing grounds over s, 900 miles from home. !"