Evening star., 1898-05-13
MYSTERIOUS MACKEREL.
They Appear ut hut Two Points and
Nobody Knows Whence They Come.

appear fOfnts anu
Nobody Knows Whence They Come.
From the Fishing Gazette
The keenest interest now centers in the
mackerel fishery. The first fare of the sea-
son was landed at the Fulton fish market
slip on Tuesday of last week, ten days in
advance of the first cargo last year and
only five days behind the earliest catch on
record. Not for years has the outcome of
the seasons operations been widely dis
cussed now. There are reasons for II,
of course. They are to be found in the
fact that of late years the supply of salt
mackerel has been inadequate for the needs
of consumption. Prices, owing to the scare
ity of the fish, have gradually risen to a
point above the means of the poorer classes
the largest consumers of salt mackerel-
and the fish have become a luxury. almost.
on the tables of the well-to-do.
Year after year since the season of 1889
Cthe year when the fishery first began to
show signs of decline) fishermen and fish
dealers have watched the advent of each
season hopefully. The movements of the
fish as they approached the coast have
been carefully observed, and signs hat in
the seasons of greatest success foreshad-
owed or attended the coming of the schools
have been more or less in evidence. Old
fishermen who have followed the schools
UP and down the coast until their hair has
grown white the foam-capped waves
have graVely read the riddle of these signs,
and have fitted out their craft and pursued
the capricious fish throughout each season
with only by a vague sort of intuition
which they cannot impart Its movements
are to them a mystery. They know some
thing of its habits, when it may be expect
ed TO appear off the coast, and that is
about all.
In this respect the fishery department is
no better off. 1t is known that the fish
have migration along the coast north
ward in the spring and southward in the
autumn. 1t is believed that their appear
Oh i- dino To hs rN-aln in
stinCt of reproduction which they possess
in common with other fishes: but what has
caused the alarming diminution in the size
OF the schools that annually visit our
shores is question which science and
fishermen are mute, 1t is not little dis
appointing to know that with the much
yaunted power of our nineteenth century
scientific knowledge the apparent mystery
of the mackerel has not been solved.
This much We do know. In the early
part of March the fish in greater or less
numbers strike the southern coast in the
vicinity of Cape Henry; by the middle of
April the schools reach the Capes of Della
ware, and slowly advance past Barnegat
and Sandy Hook About the middle of
May, according to the movements of the
fish in past years, a school will arrive off
Yarmouth. n. s.. but whence it comes is
buried in mystery. From the size and gen.
eral character of the fish composing the
school, it is apparent that they do not be-
long to the great littoral schools which a5-
vance from the south Therefore it is pre-
the eastward in the deep sea
Simultaneously with the appearance of
this latter school the host of southern
visitors. having by that time gone as far
suddenness quite as mysterious the ap-
pearance of the school off Yarmouth, only
to reappear again perhaps in the Day-in-
dented shores of MasSac chuSettS. Thence
forward until well into the month of Au-
gust the waters will be more less fire.
quented by the fish.
tI,,.- f,s-t,
known They appear in and disappear
from certain localities and leave no sign,
so that it is impossible to say with any de-
gree of certainty that the rowing schools
which first visit the bays of New England
are identical with those that remain
throughout the season OF this much
practically the same now as they We're dur
ing the period when the mackerel fishery
first assumed any degree of Importance
about the year 1870.
While certain details and important data
concerning the early years of the fishery
are lacking. enough is known of the busi-
ness to establish the fact that between tie
years lS25-perhapS earlier-and 1870 the
method of capture was largely with "jgs'
little hooks, with heavily loaded shanks
1t is known. too. that for great many
exclusively by New England fishermen.
From the hamlets and fishing villages
round and about Cape Cod from 800 to $50
craft of various sizes engaged in the CAP
ture OF the fish. In those days. and well
down 10 within a few years, the boats rare
ly went further south than absecom light.
Rich harvests of the fish were found
abreast of Sandy Hook and about the
shores of Block Island. The darting fins
of cleaning millions of the fish ripped the
waters for miles along the coast One ig-
norant of the immensity of the seas vast
resources and the wonderful fecundity of
the fishes therein would doubtless listen
with incredulous amaZement if told of the
number OF fish one of the large schools
contains Mackerel fishermen of less ttan
a generation ago describe the schools as
seen by them as being "windrows of fish
hundreds of yards wide and miles long"
And one school seen off Block Island in the
seventies was estimated TO contain up
ward of a million barrels of fish 1t is idle
to remark. perhaps, that schools like these
are never seen nowadays. The mighty
multitude coming in from the sea is broken
up into countless small detachments long
before the tish strike the coast
The banner year of the mackerel fishery
all accounts agree. was the season of 1891
In that year the total amount of mackerel
salted in the New England states was
i.0.UoD barrels Since then the decline has
been more or less steady, and of late years
most marked Last year the combined
landings of salt mackerel of the New Eng
land feet aggregated OILY IL 154 barrels
These figures speak with marked emphasis
OF the hshery's decay.