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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



taken in Weir River, just mentioned, and it has 

 proved possible to re-establish smelt by intro- 

 ducing the eggs or fry into streams from which it 

 has been extirpated. For example, good smelt 

 fishing was reported in "Poorhouse Brook," 

 Saugus, a tributary of Boston Harbor, three years 

 after the stream was stocked with eggs, and 

 attempts have been similarly successful on Long 

 Island, N. Y. Maintenance of the stock is a 

 question either of providing accessible spawning 

 grounds of sufficient extent, or of making up for 

 lack of such by artificial propagation. 



The precise season when young smelt go down 

 to the sea in the Gulf of Maine streams is yet to 

 be learned; probably early in summer. We 

 seined several hundred fry, 1% to 1% inches long, 

 October 1, 1924, on a beach of Mount Desert 

 Island, evidence that the rate of growth is about 

 the same for our smelt during its first summer and 

 autumn as for the European, i. e., to a length of 

 1% to 2% inches. 



Most of the smelt evidently do not spawn until 

 they have passed an autumn, a winter, a summer, 

 and a second winter in salt water. 



General range. — East coast of North America 

 from eastern Labrador, Strait of Belle Isle, and 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence southward regularly to 

 New Jersey, and reported to Virginia; running up 

 streams and rivers to spawn. Smelt, also, are 

 landlocked naturally in many lakes and ponds in 

 New Hampshire and in Maine, also in Lake 

 Champlain, and in various Canadian lakes. 18 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The smelt is a 

 familiar little fish around the entire coast of the 

 Gulf of Maine, but varies greatly in abundance 

 from place to place according to the accessibility 

 of streams suitable for spawning, from which it 

 seldom wanders far alongshore. Smelt are plenti- 

 ful, still, all around the inner parts of Massachu- 

 setts Bay and its tributary harbors, though many 

 of the local streams are barred to them now; thence 

 northward and eastward all along the coast of 

 Maine; tolerably so in the region of Passama- 

 quoddy Bay (catch for Charlotte County, New 

 Brunswick, 7,400 pounds in 1945), and more so 

 along the western shore of Nova Scotia (60,100 

 pounds for Yarmouth County in 1945). But 

 they are less plentiful passing inward along the 

 Nova Scotia shore of the Bay of Fundy, as illus- 



'■ The European smolt is landlocked in many lakes in northern Europe. 



trated by catches in 1945 of 20,100 pounds for 

 Digby County, but only 7,600 pounds for Kings 

 County, 2,000 pounds for Hants, and 1,800 for 

 Colchester (covering the Minas Basin region). 

 So few smelt exist along the New Brunswick side 

 of the Bay, inward from the Passamaquoddy 

 region, that none at all were reported for that 

 stretch of coast in any year during the period 

 1939-1945. Doubtless this scarcity up the Bay 

 is "due to absence of streams suitable for spawn- 

 ing, and the general turbidity of the water," as 

 Jeffers has remarked. 16 



Abundance. — Smelt once were so plentiful in the 

 Back Bay at Boston (now mostly filled in) that 

 "distinguished merchants of lower Beacon Street 

 might be seen, at early hours, eagerly catching 

 their breakfast from their back doors." 17 Those 

 happy days, however, are long since past, and 

 smelt certainly are not so numerous as they were 

 even 50 years ago, 18 around the Massachusetts 

 shoreline of our Gulf, where various streams 

 either have been closed to them, or have been 

 rendered uninhabitable by pollution. But enough 

 still remain to provide sport for thousands of 

 anglers, 19 and we still hear of an occasional catch 

 there of many dozens by some one lucky enough 

 to hit a run of fish at the right time and tide. 



In 1938, when a special effort seems to have 

 been made to gather smelt statistics, the reported 

 catch for the inner part of Massachusetts Bay 

 and northward to the New Hampshire line was 

 25,900 pounds, or some 300,000 fish, if they ran 

 about a dozen to the pound. The yearly catch 

 reported for the coast of Maine, added to that of 

 the Passamaquoddy area (which form one faunal 

 unit so far as the smelt is concerned) averaged 

 about 644,000 pounds during the period 1937 to 

 1946, 20 or perhaps some 8,000,000 fish; about 

 61,000 pounds for Digby and Yarmouth Counties, 

 Nova Scotia, combined, which covers most of the 

 catch for the Gulf, north and east of New Hamp- 

 shire. 



The catches of smelt that are made along the 

 coasts of Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova 

 Scotia may seem impressive if taken by them- 



'• Ann. Rept. Biol. Board Canada, (1931) 1932. p. 27. 



>' Mass. Rept. for 1870, p. 23. 



» Kendall (Bull., U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 42. 1927, pp. 244-249) gives many 

 interesting details as to catches in Massachusetts. 



>* Smelt fishing has long been restricted to hook and line along this part 

 of the coast. 



» Maximum 875,700 pounds in 1945, minimum 316,400 pounds in 1939. 

 No data are available for Maine for the years 1941 or 1942. 



