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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 59. — Argentine (Argentina silus). A, adult, Biddeford Pool, Maine; from Goode and Bean, drawing by H. L. 

 Todd; B, egg; C, larva, 28 mm.; D, larva, 45 mm. B-D, European, after Schmidt. 



swept up to the surface like other deep-sea fishes 

 by some upwelling of the water, to drift there 

 helplessly. Its eggs float chiefly in the deeper 

 water layers, seldom rising to the surface, and 

 they are among the largest of buoyant fish eggs 

 (3 to 3.5 mm. in diameter), with flat oil globule 

 (0.95 to 1.16 mm.) and vacuolated yolk. Newly 

 hatched larvae are about 7.5 mm. long and have 

 a large yolk sac, but this has been absorbed when 

 they have grown to a length of 12 mm. and a line 

 of spots has appeared along the belly. The fin 

 rays are formed by the time the little fish has 

 reached 45 mm., the anus has moved forward, and 

 the forked outline of the tail is apparent, but the 

 ventral fins do not appear until the larva is about 

 50 mm. long. 



General range. — North Atlantic, usually in water 

 as deep as SO to 300 fathoms ; known from northern 

 Norway south to the northern part of the North 

 Sea on the European side, from the Nova Scotia 

 Banks to the offing of southern New England on 

 the American side. 23 



Occurrence in the Gulj oj Maine. — The argentine 

 was considered rare in our waters until recent- 

 ly. Some specimens have been brought in from 



H For recent records of argentines off Nova Scotia, see McKenzie and 

 Homans. Proc. Nova Scotia Inst. Sci., vol. 19, No. 3, 1938, p. 277 and 

 McKenzie, Proc. Nova Scotia Inst. Sci., 20, 1939, p. 15. 



widely scattered localities around the coast, name- 

 ly, Belfast, Biddeford Pool, and Fletchers Neck, 

 Maine; and from Hampton Beach, N. H. It has 

 proved, with the development of otter trawling, 

 that argentines are fairly common all around the 

 edges of Georges Bank and off Cape Cod in mod- 

 erately deep water. It is not unusual for one haul 

 of the trawl to bring in from one to a dozen from 

 depths of 30 to 100 fathoms, with much larger 

 numbers taken occasionally; one vessel, for exam- 

 ple, trawled 15,000 pounds on the northeastern 

 edge of Georges Bank in about 100 fathoms during 

 a week in mid-September 1929. Evidently there 

 are at least a few argentines in the deep trough of 

 the Gulf also. Firth' 24 reports that ten were taken 

 at 90 fathoms on the northwestern slope of Georges 

 Bank on June 18; and the Albatross II trawled 

 one at 1 15 fathoms off Mount Desert Rock. They 

 spawn to some extent in the Gulf, for on April 17, 

 1920, a townet haul on the Albatross I from 109 

 fathoms in the southeastern part of the Gulf basin 

 yielded 43 eggs, unmistakably of argentine par- 

 entage, while we have taken a scattering of argen- 

 tine fry at localities as widely separated as the 

 offing of Mount Desert Rock and the northwestern 

 edge of Browns Bank. 



« Firth, Bull. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., fil, 1910, p. 10. 



