The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-12-26
MACKEREL COMING BACK.

Maine Fishermen Look for an Unusually
Good Season Along the Coast Next Year.
Unless all signs fail the coming year
will show return of mackerel to the
Maine coast and thus revive an industry
that has been on the decline for years.
Fishermen say that the outlook is un-
usually bright.
As an industry mackereling has not
been success along the Maine coast for
several decades. 1t is confined almost
wholly to the coasts of these five coun-
ties-Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Cum
berland and York. According to the
latest report of the Commissioner of Sea
and Shore Fisheries the year 1908 was
the most profitable of the decade, when
302, 300 pounds were caught, at value
of $22, 449 The following year the catch
was greater, amounting to 345, 200
pounds, but the value was less, amount
ing to ly $21. 905.
That the mackerel fishery of Maine has
declined is unquestioned. But mackerel
possess odd habits and no two years ever
show them the same. In the old days all
the mackerel men fished with handlines,
for seines were unknown. A mackerel
schooner would carry several dories and
when school of fish was sighted the
dories would be slipped overheard and
manned by their crews. Each man used
two lines, and it has often been told that
the fish would bite without having the
hooks baited. The mackerel always used
to be considered free biting, but those
days have passed.
According to history, the mackerel
fishery reached the highest figure it had
ever attained in 1881 up to that time. In
that year the catch of Maine reached the
unprecedented figures of 1888, 54S barrels.
That catch marked the high tide in figures
for many years to follow, as the fish be-
gan to go elsewhere. A decline of 20
years was experienced and then there
came change, with an increase in the
catch, until the year 1880, when the larg-
est catch of mackerel in the history of
the State was secured, amounting to
100000 barrels. Since then there has
been falling off in the catch until the
past four years when there has been a
tendency of the fish to come back
The seiners which have made the big
hauls of the fish along the coast in the
past two seasons have been those which
seined for all kinds of fish. Most of
THESE DoatS are large, ScnOOner-flggeu
power craft, carrying gasolene engines
able to drive them against a head tide at
a lively rate.
These seiners cruise up and down the
coast and head for school of fish, what
ever it may be, as soon as sighted. As
the school is approached the dories are
laun ched and surround the fish with the
seine and then it is hauled up and it's load
dumped on the deck of the vessel. While
the catch may be bigger than under the
old system the work has nothing of the
element of sport such as was experienced
by the handliners.
The last big schools of mackerel which
struck in on the Maine coast hung about
Monhegan Island in the latter part of
July, 1911, and were about there for sew
eral days, while they loitered along the
entire Maine coast for several weeks.
During that time the seine boats devoted
their time entirely to mackereling, as a
good catch of those fish was worth sew
eral hauls of herring for the sardine fac
/ tories.