Gloucester, Mass., was cruising for mackerel off the coast of Delaware.
When in latitude 38 degrees, at a point about 50 miles ESE. of Fenwick
Island light-ship, the vessel fell in at night with a large body of
mackerel, and the seine was thrown round a part of the school. Among
the mackerel taken was an Atlantic salmon weighing 16 pounds, which
Capt. Solomon Jacobs, who was in command of the schooner, sent home to
Gloucester. Capt. Jacobs informs us that the fish was fat and in fine
condition. Some of the crew told the captain that there was another
salmon in the seine, but it escaped over the cork line as the seine was
being "dried in." The light-ship mentioned is about 10 miles off the
coast, so the place where these salmon were taken was about 60 miles
from the nearest land.
The foregoing is the only instance known to this Commission of the
capture of salmon so far at sea on the coast of the United States or of
the taking of salmon in a purse seine with mackerel under any
circumstances. Capt. S. J. Martin, the veteran fisherman of Gloucester,
Mass., has never known of another such occurrence, and a special
inquiry conducted by him among the mackerel fishermen of that port
failed to disclose the knowledge among them of a similar case.
Footnote: * Extension of the Recorded Range of Certain Marine and
Freshwater Fishes of the Atlantic Coast of the United States.