FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



157 



more than a half century ago. Two specimens, 

 also picked up on the beach, were sent up from 

 Newburyport, Mass., in November 1929; and 

 A. H. Clark, of the U. S. National Museum, 

 informs us that he has found many larvae of the 

 leptocephalus tj r pe at Manchester, Mass., which 

 probably were congers to judge from their size. 



The conger occurs regularly and commonly to 

 the west and south of Cape Cod, being taken near 

 Woods Hole from July into the autumn, and about 

 Block Island from August until November. Very 

 little is knowTi about their movements. But we 

 suspect that they shift offshore into deeper and 

 warmer water for the winter, judging from their 

 absence then in shoal water, contrasted with the 

 large offshore catch in March mentioned above 

 (p. 156) and with the fact that we saw several 

 trawled at 50 to 142 fathoms off southern New 

 England on the Albatross III, in May in 1950. 



Slime eel Simenchelys parasiticus Gill 1879 



Snub-nosed eel 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 349. 



Description. — The most distinctive characters 

 of the slime eel, its eel-like form, snub nose, long 

 dorsal fin, and soft and slimy body, have been 

 mentioned already (p. 150). It is stouter and more 

 sway-bellied than the common eel, very soft, and 

 with a more tapering tail. The dorsal fin origi- 

 nates a short distance behind the tips of the 

 pectorals when the latter are laid back against the 

 body, and the anal runs forward on the lower 

 surface almost to the vent, which is situated about 

 midway of the body. The head is much shorter 

 than in either the common eel or the conger; the 

 mouth is small, gaping back only about half 

 way to the forward edge of the eye, with upper and 



lower jaws of equal length and each armed with a 

 single series of small, close-set cutting teeth. The 

 gill openings are small, and instead of being 

 vertical and on the sides of the neck as they are in 

 the common eel, they are longitudinal and lower 

 down on the throat. 



Color. — Dark brown, with the belly only a little 

 paler than the back, though usually more or less 

 silvery. 



Size. — About 2 feet long. 



Habits. — It is partly parasitic in habit, burrow- 

 ing into the bodies of halibut and other large fish, 

 circumstances under which a considerable number 

 of specimens have been brought in by fishermen. 

 Very likely it was common inshore in the old days 

 when halibut were plentiful there. It also lives 

 independently on the bottom. Nothing is known 

 of its manner of life beyond this, nor of its breeding 

 habits. We may add from experience that it is as 

 slimy as a hag and drips with sheets of mucus when 

 drawn out of the water. 



General range. — The continental slope, and the 

 slopes of the offshore banks, from abreast of the 

 eastern end of Long Island to the Newfoundland 

 Banks, in depths ranging from 200 to more than 

 900 fathoms; also in deep water about the Azores, 

 and represented in Japanese waters by an ex- 

 tremely close relative, if, indeed, it is separable at 

 all from the Atlantic slime eel. 76 



Occurrence in the Gulf oj Maine. — There is no 

 definite record of the snub-nosed eel actually with- 

 in the southern rim of the Gulf so far as we can 

 learn, and our only first-hand experience with it 

 was on the slope south of Nantucket lightship, 

 where we captured 21 in a Monaco deep-sea trap 



" The Japanese slime eel, described first as a distinct species (leptosomut) 

 by Tanak-a in 1908, has been classed more recently by him (Fishes of Japan, 

 vol. 42, 1928, p. 810, pi. 173, fig, 470) as identical with the Atlantic paratiticut. 



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Figure 71. — Slime eel (Simenchelys parasiticus), off Sable Island Bank. From Goode and Bean. Drawing by 



H. L. Todd. 



