THE MACKEREL is one of the most valuable food fishes in the Atlantic, and great fisheries for it are carried on in Great Britain. Ireland, Norway, Canada, and the United States. Lines, purse seines, and gill-nets are the principal apparatus used. The most important. of the several species, the common mackerel (Scomber scombrus), is found on both sides of the Atlantic. and appears near shore in enormous schools. Trustworthy estimates by fishermen have placed the quah tity of fish in some of the larger schools at 1.000.000 barrels. They appear in the spring, coming shoreward earlier in the more southern latitudes, and in autumn they return to the deeper waters. The European catch is usually limited enough to be mostly marketed fresh, but in the United States and Canada large quantities are cured. In North America most of the mack erel fisheries are on the east coast. For the ten years ending in ISS6 the annual catch in the United States was over 300,000 barrels, with a value of about $2,450,000. The catch during the succeeding ten years averaged about 48,000 barrels. no year exceeding 89,000 barrels. The catch in Canada for the year 1893 was valued at $1,096,000. The quantity taken in England, Scot
land, Ireland. and Norway in 1S95 amounted to 399,361 barrels. Of these 46,500 barrels were salted. In 189S the European product of salted mackerel was 50.000 barrels. The Canadian prod. net of pickled mackerel in 1893 amounted to 67.912 barrels. worth $904,832. In the United States the proportion of salted mackerel to the total catch was in former years above 80 per cent., but in recent years it has been less than 50 per cent. The increasing demand for fresh mack erel is in part responsible for this decrease.
The Spanish mackerel, one of the choicest food fishes, is taken in considerable quantities along its entire range on the east coast of the United States, hut principally south. The yearly catch amounts to about 1.700.000 pounds. with a value of $130,000. It is taken in seines, gill-nets, pound-nets, and lines.
The tunny or horse-mackerel, which may reach a AN-eight of 1000 to 1500 pounds, is a mackerel of most excellent flavor, and is the object of ex tensive fisheries in Southern Europe..