FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



231 





Figure 110.— Spotted hake (Urophycis regius). From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



that it has no prolonged rays in its first dorsal fin 

 (which is hardly higher than the second dorsal, and 

 has 8 or 9 rays) ; by the smaller number of rays in 

 its second dorsal fin (46 to 51 as against 54 or more 

 in the squirrel and white hakes) ; and by having 

 only 90 to 95 oblique rows of scales along its sides 

 from gill opening to caudal fin, instead of about 

 105 to 110 rows and about 140 rows, respectively, 

 in the other two species. The anal fin has 43 to 

 49 rays, somewhat fewer, on the average, than the 

 squirrel or the white hake (48 to 50). 



Convenient field marks are that the outer half 

 of its first dorsal fin is black with a whitish margin; 

 that its pectoral fins reach back as far as the origin 

 of the anal fin, whereas they fall considerably short 

 of the latter in both the white and the squirrel 

 hake; and that its lateral line is darker brown than 

 the general body color, instead of paler, and is 

 interrupted by a series of distinct whitish spots. 

 Otherwise the spotted hake, like the commoner 

 hakes, is dull brown, darker above than below, 

 with dorsal and anal fins of the same color as the 

 back. Its ventrals are whitish. 



Size. — The largest of many measured by Welsh 

 at Atlantic City, in August 1920, were about 16 

 inches long, and weighed between 1 and \% pounds; 

 the usual length is less than 12 inches, and the 

 longest, of about GOO taken by the Albatross II at 

 14 stations between the offing of Delaware Bay and 

 Cape Hatteras, in late winter and spring (1930 and 

 1931) was 5% inches (130 mm.). 



Habits. — The spotted hake resembles the other 

 hakes in its habits. It may be more of a fish eater, 

 for Vinal Edwards noted that the few he examined 

 at Woods Hole contained alewives, menhaden, 

 launce, and squid. But it also feeds on the crus- 

 taceans on which the white and squirrel hakes 

 subsist, for Hildebrand and Schroeder 49 found 



mysid-shrimps in most of those examined in Chesa- 

 peake Bay where small spotted hake are very 

 common. The capture of spawning fish by the 

 Albatross, off the coast of the Carolinas in 

 December in 1919, recorded in Welsh's field notes, 

 is evidence that it is a winter breeder. 



Central range. — Coast of the United States, 

 regularly from southern New England and New 

 York to Cape Hatteras (including Chesapeake 

 Bay where it is plentiful), and ranging southward 

 as far as the offing of northern Florida in deep 

 water. 60 



Many were trawled as far northward as the 

 offing of Delaware Bay by the Albatross II, in 1930 

 and 1931; it is reported as rather uncommon at 

 New York; 61 it has been taken occasionally at 

 Woods Hole; it has been known to reach the coast 

 of Maine as a very rare stray; it was reported more 

 than a century ago off Halifax, Nova Scotia, by 

 Richardson; 62 and a single specimen was reported 

 as taken, pelagic, near Sable Island (lat. 44°10', 

 long. 59°45') in August 1931. 63 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine.— The spotted 

 hake strays past Cape Cod so seldom that speci- 

 mens taken off Seguin Island many years ago, 

 and four, trawled on the southwestern part of 

 Georges Bank, by the Albatross III in May 1950, 

 are the only definite records of it for the Gulf of 

 Maine. 64 But it may well have been overlooked 

 among the hosts of young hake of the two common 

 species (white and squirrel) that are caught in 



« Bull. C. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 43, pt. I, 1928, p. 161. 



*> The U. S. National Museum has specimens taken ofl Charleston, S. C, 

 at 87 and 124 fathoms. 



»' Nichols and Breder, Zoologica, N. Y. Zool. Soc., vol. 9, 1927, p. 169. 



" Fauna boreali Americana, vol. 3, 1836, p. 253. Richardson's wood cut of 

 the specimen in question, from a sketch by Lt. Col. Hamilton Smith, shows 

 the low first dorsal with black apex that is characteristic of the species regius. 



» Report. Newfoundland Fishery Res. Comm., vol. 1, No. 4, 1932, p. 109. 



« This species was also listed from Ipswich Bay, from Casco Bay, and off 

 ofMonhegen Island in the Crampus collections of 1912 (Bull. Mus. Comp. 

 Zool. vol. 58, No. 2, 1914, p. 113), but it is probable that these specimens were 

 white hake in reality. 



