Warming waters around Martha’s Vineyard have discouraged what once were abundant fish. Top fisheries scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service recently released a report citing the dramatic influence changing climate has had on at least one of the fish that used to spend a lot of time in these waters: Atlantic mackerel.
Atlantic mackerel have shifted away from the Vineyard and now are found more east and northeast, according to the report.
Atlantic mackerel once were hugely abundant around the Vineyard. A few anglers still remember jigging for tinker mackerel in Menemsha Channel and bigger fish in Menemsha Bight in the late spring and summer. Others can remember when the fish was caught all around the Island. In more recent years, Atlantic mackerel are only seen in this area in spring, for about two weeks off Aquinnah.
Overfishing has often been the easy explanation for their decline in these waters. Not so, according to the report coauthored by Jon A. Hare, of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The fish have moved away and are now abundant somewhere else.
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