136 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



 



wmm 



j^m*^ 



>■- 



Figure 57. — Smelt (Osmerus mordax), adult, Woods Hole. From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



it with the capelin. The body of the smelt is only 

 about one-fifth as deep as long (exclusive of 

 caudal fin), with broadly rounded back but flat- 

 tened enough sidewise to be egg-shaped in cross 

 section. It is deepest about its mid-length, taper- 

 ing thence toward the head and toward the tail (at 

 least in fat fish), whereas the capelin is of nearly 

 uniform depth from gill opening to anal fin (p. 134) . 

 Its mouth gapes back of the eye. 



Printed accounts of the smelt usually credit it 

 with a peculiar "cucumber" odor, and smelt 

 fishermen often speak of a trace of this, but it is so 

 faint that we have never noticed it though we have 

 caught and handled many. 9 



Color.- — Transparent olive to bottle green above, 

 the sides are of paler cast of the same hue but each 

 with a broad longitudinal silvery band. The belly 

 is silvery, while the fins and body are more or less 

 flecked with tiny dusky dots. This color pattern 

 is shared by another slender little fish, the silver- 

 side (p. 302), but the latter has two large dorsal 

 fins, so there is no danger of confusing the smelt 

 with it. 



Size. — Smelt grow to a maximum length of 

 about 13 or 14 inches. Few, however, are more 

 than a foot long, and adults run only about 7 to 

 9 inches. Smelt weigh from 1 to 6 ounces accord- 

 ing to size and fatness. 



Habits. 10 — The smelt is an inshore fish, con- 

 fined to so narrow a zone along the coast that 

 none has ever been reported more than a mile or 

 so out from the land, or more than two or three 

 fathoms in depth, while many spend the whole 

 year in estuarine situations. 



* The European smelt (0. eperlanus) smells so strong that It is not held In 

 very high esteem as a food-fish. 



>° Kendall (Bull. U. 8. Bur. Fish., vol. 42, 1927, p. 244) has given a detailed 

 account of the habits, distribution, and catches of the smelt of the New 

 England coast, ako of the landlocked populations. 



Young smelts certainly, and old ones probably, 

 travel in schools, which are mostly composed of 

 fish of a size, hence probably are the product of 

 one year's hatching, and they live pelagic, not 

 on the bottom, though confined to shoal water. 



Most authorities describe the smelt as feeding 

 on small crustaceans, which is correct as far as it 

 goes, for shrimp (both decapods and mysids) 

 and gammarids are probably its favorite food, and 

 shrimp were long considered the best smelt bait. 

 But it has been found that pieces of "sea worms" 

 (Nereis) are more attractive to the larger smelt 

 (at least in Massachusetts Bay). Small fish also 

 form an important item in the diet. We have, 

 for example, found smelts taken in the Sheepscot 

 River in May packed full of young herring, and 

 have caught many with small mummichogs 

 (Fundulus) as bait; while cunners, anchovies, 

 launce, sticklebacks, silversides, and alewives have 

 been identified from smelt stomachs at Woods 

 Hole. The Woods Hole diet list also includes 

 shellfish, squid, annelid worms (Nereis), and crabs, 

 but even as greedy a fish as the smelt ceases to 

 feed during its spawning visits to fresh water. 

 Young smelt depend chiefly on copepods and on 

 other minute pelagic crustaceans. Smelt fisher- 

 men are familiar with the fact that a smelt ap- 

 proaches a bait slowly, then stops, and appears to 

 suck it in. 11 If the smelt take their living prey 

 in this same way, it is somewhat of a mystery 

 how they succeed in capturing animals as active 

 as shrimps and small fish. 



Smelt, like alewives, shad, and salmon, make 

 their growth in salt water, but run up into fresh 

 water to spawn. 



The summer habitat of the smelt varies off 



n This method of feeding seems first to have been described In print by 

 "Grif" (Forest and Stream, vol. 54, No. 8, Feb. 24, 1900, p. 151). 



