294 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Harbor, where a considerable number were col- 

 lected in 1878 (Welsh found it there in 1916), and 

 at Milk Island nearby. But we have not learned 

 of it anywhere else in the Massachusetts Bay 

 region, and it has never been recorded between 

 Cape Ann and Cape Elizabeth, nor did Welsh see 

 it taken there by the gill-netters during the spring 

 of 1913. It has been reported repeatedly at 

 several localities in Casco Bay, which seems to be 

 a local center of abundance. But it cannot be 

 common along the eastern Maine coast or on the 

 New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy, for the 

 only records from this stretch of coastline are from 

 Bucksport, from Eastport, and from Passama- 

 quoddy Bay where one was taken in 1880 and 

 another in 1912. Minas Channel on the Scotian 

 side seems to be a second center of abundance, 

 like Casco Bay, for Leim found it common there. 15 

 Huntsman reports it in St. Mary Bay also. But 

 we have found no other record of it along the 

 western coast of Nova Scotia. 



Welsh saw it taken by the otter trawlers on 

 Georges Bank in June 1913, and we have seen it 

 there on four recent trawling trips, including about 

 a dozen specimens trawled by the Albatross III 

 on the southwest part of the bank and off Nan- 

 tucket in 22 to 39 fathoms, in mid-May 1950, and 

 132 taken by the Eugene H in that same general 

 region, in 36 hauls at 25 to 45 fathoms, in late 

 June 1951. Beyond this, nothing is known of it 

 on the offshore fishing grounds. 



The evidence of the Gloucester specimens men- 

 tioned above proves that it breeds in the Massa- 

 chusetts Bay region to some extent, while its local 

 abundance suggests the same for Casco Bay, as 

 does the capture of its larvae for Minas Channel. 

 It may also breed at the heads of the warmer and 

 shoaler bays between Casco Bay and Grand 

 Manan. Seemingly it does not do so in any of 

 the estuaries on the New Brunswick side of the 

 Bay of Fundy for no larvae have ever been found 

 in Passamaquoddy Bay, a fairly representative 

 situation, probably because of low temperature. 

 But we have no doubt that the local stocks in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence (p. 294) are self-sustaining. 



The sand flounder is much more plentiful west 

 of Cape Cod than it is anywhere in the Gulf of 

 Maine, southward at least to Chesapeake Bay, 

 where it is very generally distributed in depths 

 down to 25 fathoms, especially in the southern 



'« Huntsman. Contrlb. Canadian Biol. (1921), No. 2. 1922, p. 70. 



part. And it is reported as common at Beaufort, 

 N. C. 16 



The sand flounder is known only here and there 

 to the eastward and northward of our Gulf. Its 

 pelagic larvae have been reported on Middle 

 Ground off Halifax and near Sable Island ; 17 a few 

 adults have been taken in Chedabucto Bay, 

 eastern Nova Scotia; IS Cox 19 states that it is "by 

 no means uncommon" around the Magdalen 

 Islands, in the southern side of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, where Huntsman ^ classes it as charac- 

 teristic of the warm surface stratum inshore; and 

 it has been taken off Port-au-Port on the west 

 coast of Newfoundland. 21 



Importance. — Sand flounders are so small and 

 so thin bodied, and so few of them are caught in 

 the Gulf of Maine that they are of no commercial 

 importance there, nor likely to be. However, a 

 market developed for them during the war years in 

 New York, where a much larger supply was near 

 at hand, culminating in landings of about 340,000 

 pounds in 1944, and about 360,000 pounds in 1945. 

 But as Moore has pointed out, 22 the demand fell 

 off during 1945, as the war drew to its close. And 

 now the sand flounder is a neglected fish again. 



Gulf Stream flounder Citharichthys arctifrons 

 Goode 1880 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2683. 



Description. — This little flatfish is left-handed 

 (eyes on the left-hand side and viscera at the left- 

 hand edge as the fish lies), with a wide mouth 

 gaping back as far as the forward edge of the eye; 

 with a nearly straight lateral line; and with both 

 of its pectoral fins well developed, though the one 

 on the eyed side is considerably larger than its 

 mate on the blind side. Its left-hand ventral fin 

 stands on the midline of the body, but the right- 

 hand ventral fin is a short distance above it on the 

 blind side, and while the two ventral fins are alike 

 in females, the one on the blind side is much the 



>• Smith, North Carolina Geol. and Econ. Survey, vol. 2, 1897. p. 392. 



» Report 1, No. 4, Newfoundland Fishery Res. Comm., 1632, p. 110. 



» Cornish, Contrib. Canadian Biol., (1902-1905) H07, p. 90. 



» Contrib. Canadian Biol., (1918-1920) 1921, p. 113. 



» Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Ser. 3, vol. 12, Sect. 4, 1918, p. 63. 



" Rept., Newfoundland Fish. Res. Comm., vol. 2, No. 1, 1933, p. 127. 



>s See Moore (Bull. Bingham Oceanogr. Coll., vol. 11, art. 3, 1947, p. 71) for 

 detailed tabulation of the New York landings, 1943-1945, from the Dally 

 Market News Service, Division of Fishery Industries, U. S. Fish and Wild- 

 life Service. The sand flounder is not included in the general fisheries sta- 

 tistics published yearly by the Fish and Wlldlifo Service. 



