254 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



summer, have been trawled off Iceland during the 

 last week of July. And the smallest bottom stages 

 have so far been taken only in water shoaler than 

 about 27 fathoms (50 meters), evidence that the 

 larvae of the Atlantic halibut tend both to rise 

 toward the surface, and to drift inshore during 

 their pelagic stage, as is also true of the Pacific 

 halibut. 



Fry of 3% to 5% inches (80-150 mm.) such as 

 have been taken in considerable numbers in Ice- 

 landic waters in June and July probably are in 

 their second year. The average relationship be- 

 tween age and size is as follows according to 

 Jespersen: 51 



Age 



1 year 



2 years — 



3 years 



4 years — 



5 years 



Average 

 length 



Inches 

 3.9 

 9.1 

 13 



18.5 

 22.4 



Extremes of 

 length 



Inches 

 3. 1 to 5. 9 

 7. 1 to 12. 6 

 8. 3 to 18. 9 

 11.8 to 24.4 

 16. 1 to 2S 



Age 



6 years - - - 



7 years. - . 



8 years. _ . 



9 years. -. 



10 years. . 



Average 

 length 



Inches 

 25.6 

 27.6 

 29.1 

 33.9 

 37.4 



Extremes of 

 length 



Inches 

 20. 9 to 34. 3 



21. 7 to 40. 9 



22. 8 to 40. 6 

 26. 8 to 42. 1 

 29. 5 to 55. 5 



Females averaged somewhat longer and heavier 

 than males of the same age, and the fact that the 

 oldest was a fish of 20 years, 68 }i inches long, sug- 

 gests that the immense fish of 400 pounds and 

 more, and upward of 7 feet long, which are occa- 

 sionally caught, may be half a century old, always 

 assuming about the same rate of growth for the 

 Gulf of Maine halibut as for those that are caught 

 about Iceland. 



According to Thompson 52 Pacific halibut grow 

 at approximately the same rate for the first few 

 years, more slowly after about the eighth year, 

 though witb wide differences in the rate of growth 

 on different banks, probably caused by differences 

 in the food supply. 



It is probable that most of the female halibut 

 do not mature sexually until they are 9 or 10 years 

 old, some not until they are several years older 

 still; males mature when they are somewhat 

 younger. 63 



General Range. — Boreal and subarctic Atlantic, 

 in continental waters. 



The most southerly record of a halibut, in the 

 western side of the Atlantic is of a 6-foot fish that 



« Meddelelser fra Komm. Havunders0gelser, Ser. Fiskeri, vol. 5, No. 5, 

 1917; based on a study of the otoliths of more than 2,000 fish caught around 

 Iceland. 



" Report. Comm. Fish. British Columbia, (1914) 1915, pp. 76-99. 



M Females of the Pacific form may mature as young as 8 years, or not until 

 as old as 16 years, with an average of 12; males considerably younger on the 

 average. 



was picked up in a pound net near Reedville, Va. M 

 Stragglers have been reported off New Jersey and 

 New York, and off Block Island. And halibut 

 are caught in commercial quantities (or once were) 

 from Nantucket Shoals, inner parts of the Gulf of 

 Maine, Georges Bank, and the Nova Scotian 

 Banks northward to the northern part of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence (including the west coast of New- 

 foundland) , the southern part of the Grand Bank, 

 Flemish Cap and to the outer edge of the con- 

 tinental shelf off outer Labrador at depths of 

 70-90 fathoms or more. But stray specimens, 

 only are reported in along the outer coast of Lab- 

 rador, i. e., in the icy Labrador current. 55 And 

 while the range of the halibut was said by Goode 66 

 to extend to Cumberland Gulf, we doubt whether 

 there are any halibut in the icy waters along 

 Baffins Land, for the halibut is not known off the 

 Arctic coasts either of Asia or of America, though 

 the Greenland side of Davis Strait supports a 

 regular halibut fishery as far north as Disco Bay. 



In the eastern Atlantic, halibut have been re- 

 ported doubtfully from the Gulf of Cadiz, and 

 definitely from tbe Bay of Biscay. 57 Small catches 

 are made regularly as far south as the Irish Sea 

 and English Channel ; 58 and they are more numer- 

 ous around Northern Ireland and Scotland and in 

 the northern part of the North Sea; in the Faroe- 

 Shetland Region; around Iceland; along the Nor- 

 wegian Coast; around Spitzbergen and Bear Is- 

 land; also in Barent's Sea. 



The Pacific halibut, an ally so close that it is 

 hardly to be distinguishable to the untrained eye, 

 is one of the most important food fishes of the 

 northeastern Pacific. 



Occurrence in the Gulj of Maine. — The history of 

 the halibut in the Gulf of Maine, like that of the 

 salmon, must be written largely in the past tense, 

 for their numbers have been sadly depleted there 

 by over-fishing. In Colonial days the halibut was 

 a familiar fish and seemingly a very abundant one 

 on the coast of northern New England, but was 

 considered hardly fit for food. Wood 59 for in- 

 stance, writes "the plenty of better fish makes 



« Reported by Walford, Copeia, 1946, No. 2, p. 100. 



» One, about 20>S inches long, was reported to us by R. H. Backus as found 

 dead in the water, in Cutthroat Harbor, August 5, 1950, by the Blue Dolphin. 



» Fish. Ind. U. S., Sect. 1, 1884, p. 190. 



« Moreau, Hist. Nat. Poissons France, vol. 3, 1881, p. 288. 



» 6,614 pounds, for example, were landed from the English Channel In 1932. 

 For further details as to landings from the various statistical areas In the 

 eastern Atlantic, see Thompson and Van Cleve, Rept. 9, International Fish- 

 eries Comm., 1936, p. 21. 



M New Englands Prospect, 1634, p. 37. 



