The Portland daily press., 1899-04-29
It Is Said the War Ships Have
Frightened the Fish.
How the Mackerel In
dustry Grew.
The Decline In the Catch of Re.
cent Years.

The fishermen who are now m0nding
their nets and arranging their tackle on
the Maine coast from Kittsry to PASSPORT,
have their weather eye open for the first
school of mackerel which is due In
week or so; mackeral fishing was one Of
the most profitable Of all the piscatorla1
| industries Of Maine some years ago, and
| down Bar Harbor way there was great
sport dozen years ago, and the schools
| of maokerel which arrived on the shores
OF Frenchman's bay were sometimes
enormous.
OF late years they have not been seen
| off the eastern coast of Maine. One ex-
PLANTATION was given Monday by promi-
nent fisherman of Southwest Harbor,
who was in Bangor on that day, who
said:
ave used to catch mackere1 by the
thousands down our way years ago. but
the warships scared them away. You
know they run in schools and once they
get scared from a certain locality, they
| never again run that way. That's the
only reason can find as to why they
| don't come our way nowadays"
Less Is known about mackerel than of
any other of our common food fish. 1t
is known that the fish migrate northward
| 10 the spring and southwark in the au-
| tumn, and that they come from some I'M
| known place that is secret to all of our
experts.
In May an enormous school strikes the
| coast of Yarmouth, N. S. This school
t1v 60 ha thnr
army that advances from the southern
coast From the size and general charact-
er OF the mackerel off the Yarmouth
coast, 1t is believed that as they have NO
connection whatever with the great
SC hools from the south. they must come
from out of the deep sea to the east.
When the southern schools have advanced
as far as Nantucket they suddenly disap-
pear. leaving no trace behind them. Then
the veteran mackerel fishermen pick up.
their traps and repair to the bays indent-
ing the Massachusetts, coast, for 1t Is
there:that the macherel will next appear,
| were they stay in more or less numbers
| until we'll into August.
The rowing habit ofE:he mackerel is
thus shown. Besides these general move
ments, they have certain errstio habits
| that confound the fishermen and experts.
They disappear from one place and reap.
pear In the strangest manner. There Is
no accounting for these movements any
more than there Is in explaining their
migrations. Old fishermen who have
grown gray in the work say that the
nackerel are the most inystifying of all
our salt water fish. They have learned
! to read the signs of their coming and GO
ing, but they cannot explain them, nor
can they account for their habits. They
pursue them with sort OF Intuition.
One may become good fisherman OF
other denizens of the deep in q short time,
but to.capture the mackerel large expert.
ence is required.
| 1t was in 1920 that the mackerel indus
try assumed much Importance In this
country, and Between that date and 1870
the method Of capture was largely with
4 "jigs." The mackerel were SO plentiful
around the New England coast that the
fishermen made big hauls with the hook.
| 1t was not necessary to go far for the
| fish. They literally swarmed along the
coast in schools that numbered millions.
| Their darting fms cleaned in millions
of flashes from Maine to Sandy Hook.
L he latter place and Block Island were
two favorite resorts of the mao kerel.
There are millions of mackeral in the sea,
but they do not begin to flock our coasts
/, such enormous schools as formerly.
The bann er year of the mackerel indus
try was in 1881. In that year the total
amount of maokerel sailed in New Eng
| land was 430, 00e barrels.
| The number of fishermen engaged in
catching them in that early period null
| tiplied rapidly, and improved methods of
! fishing were adopted SO that in the for
| ties there was an appreciabie decline in
the size of the schools. This decrease has
| been going on ever since. In late years,
however. the diminution in the size OF
| the schools has been SO pronounced that
| II shermen have become alarmed. 1t is
well known that their power OF repro
| DIT ction is enoromus, but despite this the
| size of the schools Is decreasing rapidly.
| 1t is supposed that some other cause than
| the tlshermens depredations upon the
schools is the real reason for the decline.
| But old fishermen and experts are at sea
concerning the matter.
! Last var the combined landings of the
! large New England fleet aggregated only
| l3 "a barrels, and the present seasons
output will probably not amount to
much more. The comparatively small
supplies OF mackerel which are caught
every year are naturally causing prices to
advance. Formerly the largest consumers
OF salt maokerel were found among the
poorer classes, but owing III, THE steady i
advance IN tho prices the Ish .are really
beyond their rea;h. salt niackerel are
Becoming lnxuries,-and, If the diminu-
ton Of the schools, continues. by another
decade mackeral viii be food for the rich
only .-Bapgor Commercial.