Holy mackerel
The “lowly” fish that created Cape Cod‘s prosperity
Picture hundreds of boats moving in and out of Cape Cod harbors, under sail, employing thousands of men, with the same mission:
Catch mackerel.
So it was in the mid-1800s, when mackerel was king and Cape Cod fishermen led not just the state but the nation in bringing them home.
These days “lowly” mackerel don’t have that image or prestige, their meat darker (some might say tastier) than traditional white fillets that grace American tables. But more than codfish or whales, mackerel powered the most prosperous era in Cape Cod history.
Here’s a sense of scale and growth of an historic fishery:
In 1802, Wellfleet counted 25 fishing vessels; five were whalers, four were going for cod and/or mackerel, four ferried oystermen, and 12 were classified as “small local,” meaning they hugged close to shore and caught what came around.
Fast forward to 1851, 50 years:
Wellfleet alone was home to 79 vessels targeting mackerel. Those vessels employed 832 people, mostly men and boys, in a town of 2400 (including children). Only Gloucester had more vessels at port than Wellfleet, but now add the other active Cape towns: Provincetown had 61 mackerel boats, Truro 52, Harwich 48, Dennis 37, Barnstable 28, Chatham 19. Taken together, we far outpaced Gloucester, and anywhere else.
Landings reported by the state reflect the amazing effort:
1850-51 was the second highest volume landed through the heydays of the early and mid-1800s, 330,000 barrels of mackerel brought home. A barrel was about 40 gallons; 13.2 million gallons of one type of fish in one year.
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These boats jigged, meaning men perched over the side of a schooner or sloop, hook and line in hand, and pulled or gaffed fish out of the water one by one.
Then seine boats began to show up, open vessels as long as 40 feet, dog-like companions to main fishing boats until ready to work, playing out broad nets that circled and captured whole schools.
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It took years, but the purse-seine innovation was responsible for diminishing stocks; when you jig, you’re only catching fish that choose to bite a hook, but when you seine, every fish in the school is taken.
One of the Cape’s great 20th century characters, George Bryant from Provincetown, was a dedicated amateur historian. He liked to set records straight, correct misimpressions, and give credit where it was due – when he wasn’t collecting and lugging anything not bolted down to his yard (former home of the famous Arctic explorer Admiral Donald MacMillan).
Mackerel, ignored or overlooked, was one of George’s favorite topics:
“When you look at the 19th century homes and institutions … you have to think of mackerel,” Bryant implored the Wellfleet Historical Society in a speech in 2001:
“Mackereling was distinctive in a number of ways. It tended to be very risky. Very good years could be followed by several dismal ones and visa versa. An owner who was heavily invested in vessels and equipment could lose everything financially in a series of bad years … It tended to be a ‘commuters’ fishery as the mackerel vessels often tied up in ports at night and usually docked on Sundays when the men would try to head for home.”
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Not to naysay George, who regrettably is not around to argue the point, but the mackerel fishery also took long journeys, often into Canadian waters, the Gulf of St. Lawrence or by Prince Edward Island. Trips could last four weeks or twice that long, packing hundreds of barrels. Fish could sell for anywhere from $4 to $10 a barrel, so there was real money. Then again, inshore mackerel caught by smaller boats as well as weirs planted along the coast also could pull in big volume.
Mackereling usually started in mid-May, done by November. As far back as 1671, a Colonial code of law referred to them as needing to be regulated and sustained. And they were, all the way into the era of engines replacing sail, nets replacing hooks, factory trawlers hauling massive weight. Even into the 1880s Massachusetts was landing more than 250,000 barrels of mackerel a year, down from the heydays but still a huge amount.
As a single mackerel can spawn a million or more eggs in a batch, with five or more batches a season, the natural opportunity to replenish is strong.
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These days fishery managers are trying to rebuild mackerel stocks; pushing large “mid-water” trawlers farther off the coast is the most important step. Annual mackerel catch limits hover around 20,000 metric tons, still an amazing amount though scientists say holding at that level would allow fish to rebuild over five years if the rapacious trawls were kept out. Local fishermen don’t catch anywhere near that volume.
We’ll never again see days when mackerel ruled the economy. Yet small as they are, two centuries ago they were mighty, even more powerful than their close relative, the fish they most closely resemble in looks and genetics (though in miniature):
Giant tuna.
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On these wonderful drawings:
In 1871, Congress created the U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries. The reason, 150 years later, sounds familiar: Study declining fisheries and recommend solutions to reverse this trend.
A famous fish scientist, George Brown Goode, put together a team to compile a massive, multi-volume work, copiously illustrated. Captain J.W. Collins and Henry Wood Elliott did remarkable renditions of the life and times of the mackerel industry; some worked off photos, others freehand.
“The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States” appeared in 1887. This appears to be the last of the series.
Thank you for the opportunity to look back at our history. We are so much more than a vacation destination.
Who knew I would so thoroughly enjoy a story about mackerel!