FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



211 



Accordingly, haddock are caught on all the major 

 grounds the year around. 



Except for shifts in depth, apparently asso- 

 ciated with temperature, the haddock as a whole 

 are year-round residents as far east as the offing of 

 southeastern Nova Scotia (Roseway, La Have, 

 and Sambro Banks) ; many of them as far east 

 as Halifax and Sable Island Bank. But they 

 appear only as late spring to early winter visitors 

 farther to the east and north where they are 

 wholly absent (as indicated by the catches) in 

 late winter and early spring. Large catches, for 

 example, are made in traps near Ingonish on the 

 northeastern coast of Cape Breton Island in late 

 May and in June. The first haddock are caught 

 within the Gulf of St. Lawrence in June, whether 

 on the Cape Breton shore, or westward, the largest 

 catches are made there from July through the 

 late autumn, and very few are taken as late as 

 December. But catches are made again near 

 Ingonish in December and January, of haddock, 

 seemingly en route out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 And it now seems established that these visitors 

 to the Gulf of St. Lawrence pass the late winter 

 and early spring on Sable Island Bank and farther 

 to the westward in Nova Scotian waters. 81 



Part of the haddock in the southern part of the 

 Grand Banks region, which form a distinct popu- 

 lation separated from that of Nova Scotia by the 

 deep Laurent ian Channel, are described by 

 Thompson 82 as making a summer inshore migra- 

 tion to the southwest coast of Newfoundland, and 

 as clearly avoiding regions where the bottom water 

 is colder than about 34° F. 



Abundance. — The haddock and the rosefish 

 rank next after herring in numbers, among the 

 fishes of our Gulf that are important commercially. 

 In good years it has not been unusual for a trawler 

 to take 10,000 to 20,000 haddock in 5 or 6 days' 

 fishing on the Georges Bank and South Channel 

 grounds; a catch of 240,000 pounds of haddock 

 (something like 70,000 fish) brought in by the 

 trawler Fabia in March 1926 is one of the largest 

 of which we have chanced to hear. One must 

 remember, too, that this represents only the fish 

 that are large enough to be worth saving, and that 

 multitudes of baby haddock too small to be 



marketable, caught on Georges, are thrown back 

 dying or dead; in 1947, for example, the number so 

 wasted was estimated at almost 17 million on 

 Georges Bank alone. 83 Howard W. Schuck in- 

 forms us that the average weight of the haddock 

 landed from Georges Bank during 1928 was about 

 3% pounds. 



Fishermen have long been aware that the had- 

 dock vary widely in abundance from year to year 

 and over periods of years, on one ground or an- 

 other, independent of any effects the fishery may 

 have had on the numbers of fish. It has been 

 amply proved by investigations both in Europe 

 and in North America, that these fluctuations re- 

 sult chiefly from differences, from year to year, in 

 the number of young that survive and take to the 

 bottom on the grounds in question; the Gulf of 

 Maine is no exception. The production, for ex- 

 ample, of young haddock at the mouth of the Bay 

 of Fundy, on the New Brunswick side was low 

 from 1915 to 1919, very much higher in 1920, but 

 somewhat lower again in 1921-1923 though some- 

 what better than it had been in the 5 years pre- 

 ceding 1920. 84 But a larger number of haddock 

 (by report) were produced near Digby, on the 

 Nova Scotian side of the Bay in 1921 than had 

 been in 1920. 85 



Similarly, two exceptionally successful year 

 classes that were spawned in the Georges Bank- 

 South Channel region during the period 1921-1924 

 were followed by poor year classes from 1925- 

 1928, but then by an abundant class that was 

 spawned in 1929. 86 Since then Georges Bank has 

 been abundantly recruited with haddock fry in 

 1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, and 1945. 87 On the other 

 hand, the crop, so to speak, was unusually scanty 

 on the Bank in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1942, and 1947. 



Perhaps a good crop comes a little more often 

 for the Nova Scotia population, and every 3 

 years or so in the North Sea, "where the fry have 

 a much better chance of being retained in the 

 axea owing to the prevailing currents." 88 



11 For further discussion, see A. W. H. Needier, Contrib. Canadian Biol, 

 and Fish., vol. 6, No. 10, 1930, and A. B. Needier, Bull. 25, Biol. Bd. Canada, 

 1931. 



8! Research Bull. No. 6, Newfoundland Dept. Nat. Resources. 1939, p. 7. 



»i Schuck, Commercial Fish. Review, vol. 10, No. 10, October 1948, p. 6. 



" Huntsman and Needier, Contrib. Canadian Biol, and Fish., N. Ser., 

 vol. 3, No. 18, 1927, see summary on p. 14 [4361. 



" Needier, Contrib. Canadian Biol, and Fish., N. Ser., vol. 6, 1930, No. 10, 

 p. 44 [2841. 



"• The data for 1921-1929 are summarized in the Proc. No. 2, for 1931- 

 1933, N. Am. Council on Fishery Investigation, Ottawa, 1935, p. 13. 



" From dat3 supplied by Howard A. Schuck of the U. S. Fish and Wild- 

 life Service. 



<< Thompson, Res. Bull. No. 6, Newfoundland Dept. Nat. Resources, 

 1939, p. 22. 



