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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



with 10 to 12 dark-blue stripes, but these dark 

 cross-bars usually disappear before maturity. 



Size.- — This bonito grows to a length of about 

 3 feet and to a weight of 10 to 12 pounds. 



Habits. — The bonito is a strong, swift, predace- 

 ous inhabitant of the open sea and like all its 

 tribe travels in schools. When they visit our 

 northern waters they prey upon mackerel, ale- 

 wives, menhaden, and other smaller fish such as 

 launce and silversides; also upon squid. They are 

 very likely to be noticed, for they jump a great 

 deal when in pursuit of their prey. 



Further to the southward the bonito spawns in 

 June; but it is not likely to spawn in the Gulf of 

 Maine, nor does it do so in the northern part 

 of its European range. Presumably its eggs 

 are buoyant like those of other scombroids. 

 Young 5 to 6 inches long have been reported as 

 common off Orient, N. Y., early in September. 86 

 But nothing is known of its rate of growth. 



General range. — Warmer parts of the Atlantic, 

 including the Mediterranean; north to outer Nova 

 Scotia, 86 on the American coast and to Scandinavia 

 on the European coast. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Cape Ann is 

 the northern limit to the usual occurrence of the 

 bonito within our Gulf. It has been taken oc- 

 casionally in Casco Bay, while one was recorded 

 from the mouth of the Kennebec River in Septem- 

 ber 1930 and two more in July 1932. 87 But we 

 find no definite record of it east of this on the coast 

 of Maine, or in the Bay of Fundy, although the 

 young have been reported from Halifax on tbe 

 outer coast of Nova Scotia. Its usual limitation 

 to the southern half of the Gulf appears clearly 

 in the location of the commercial catches. 



In 1919 8S for example, pound nets, traps, and 

 other gear, accounted for almost 34,000 pounds in 

 Cape Cod Bay, but only 90 pounds about Cape 

 Ann, while the entire catch landed in the fishing 

 ports of Maine during that year was only half a 

 dozen fish (44 pounds). And there have been so 



81 Xichols and Breder (Zoologies, New York Zool. Soc, vol. 9, 1927, p. 123). 



•'"Fair numbers'* have been taken in St. Margarets Bay, also some in 

 mackerel traps near Lunenberg, and one was taken at Cape Breton, Nova 

 Scotia, in October 1937 (McKenzie, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 20, 1939, 

 p. 16) . It is also reported from the mouth of Halifax harbor (Jones, Proc. and 

 Trans. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 5, pt. 1, 1882, p. 88). One specimen, 276 

 mm. long, was taken off Centre East Pubnico, September 12, 1951 (reported 

 to us by A. H. Seim). 



" Reported by Walter H. Rich. 



« Nineteen nineteen is the most recent year, the published statistics for 

 which mention bonito in the regional breakdown of the total Massachusetts 

 catch. And there is nothing in the published fishery statistics to suggest that 

 the status of the bonito has changed since then. 



few of them in Maine waters of late that none at 

 all were mentioned in the fisheries statistics for 

 that State of late years. 



Bonito have been known to reach Cape Ann in 

 larger numbers in the past, as happened in 1876, 

 when 73 were taken in one August day in a weir 

 near Gloucester. And probably they are far more 

 plentiful every year out at sea in the southern 

 part of the Gulf than these meager returns would 

 suggest, for fishermen often mention schools of 

 them. Capt. Solomon Jacobs reported them as 

 very plentiful, in August 1896, for instance, in the 

 deep water to the northward of Georges Bank. 

 And we have seen schools of large scombroids, 

 (probably bonito) splashing and jumping off Cape 

 Cod more than once in August. 



Apparently bonito visit New England shores 

 only in the summer and fall. Thus the earliest 

 catch made by a certain set of pound nets at 

 Provincetown over a period of about 10 years was 

 in July (1915), the latest on October 4 (1919). 



The bonito is more regular in its occurrence west 

 and south of the Cape, being common in some 

 years at Woods Hole and especially off Marthas 

 Vineyard, whence about 57,000 pounds were mar- 

 keted in 1945. And party-boat captains have 

 described Buzzards Bay and the waters around the 

 Vineyard and Nantucket as full of them in some 

 recent summers. 



Importance. — The bonito is a good food fish. It 

 readily bites a bait trolled from a moving boat, 

 once one has the lure that it will strike on the 

 particular occasion. A good many are caught in 

 this way off southern New England, and we can 

 assure the reader that a bonito is one of the strong- 

 est fish that swims, weight for weight, and one of 

 the swiftest. Bonito are picked up now and 

 then in Cape Cod Bay by anglers trolling for other 

 fish; we heard of two taken in this way off Well- 

 fleet, on August 29, 1950. But they are never 

 abundant enough in the Gulf of Maine to be worth 

 fishing for there with hook and line. 



Tuna Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus) 1758 



Blue fin tuna; Horse mackerel; Great 

 albacore; Tunny; Albacore 89 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 870. 

 Description.- — The two dorsal fins of the tuna 

 are practically continuous, a character (with the 



•' A comprehensive list of publications dealing with the tunas Is given by 

 Corwin, Division Fish and Game of California, Fish Bull. No. 22, 1930. 



