FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



385 



Cuba, in January 1939. 93 Whether wanderers 

 such as this ever return to the north is unknown. 



A few bluefish are caught in winter on both 

 coasts of Florida, southward from Cape Canaveral 

 in the east, from Tampa Bay on the west; and 

 enough are taken near Key West between Decem- 

 ber 15 and February 15, to yield commercial 

 catches of 10,000 to 15,000 pounds hi most years. 94 

 Some, also, are caught around Cuba by commercial 

 fishermen in January and February. But these 

 Florida fish, presumably the Cuban also, vanish at 

 the end of the winter, not to reappear until early 

 the next. What their relationship may be to the 

 northern stock is not known. There are bluefish, 

 too, off the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico 

 and off Texas, but nothing definite is known about 

 their seasonal movements. 



It is not likely that any interchange ordinarily 

 takes place between the bluefish populations of the 

 two sides of the Atlantic. 



Females with large ova approaching ripeness 

 are taken off North Carolina in spring, and off 

 various parts of the coast farther north in sum- 

 mer; 95 ripe males have even been taken inside 

 Chesapeake Bay in June and July, 96 from which it 

 appears that they spawn from late spring through 

 July and perhaps into August. But bluefish have 

 never been reported actually spawning, though 

 watch has been kept for them, which makes ii 

 likely either that they interrupt their inshore visit 

 to move offshore for the purpose, perhaps sinking 

 deep, or that most of them have spawned out be- 

 fore they appear along our northern coasts. In 

 either case, the regular presence of "snappers" in 

 numbers inshore, and the occasional captures of 

 smaller fry in Chesapeake Bay 97 and in the Gidf of 

 Maine (p. 38S) make it likely that the spawning 

 grounds of our northern bluefish are not far 

 distant. 



The eggs have not been identified with certainty. 

 But the possibility is still open that the buoyant 

 eggs with segmented yolk and large oil globule 

 from Newport, R. I., provisionally referred to the 



n Reported by Lyman (Blueflshing, 1950, p. 10.) 



" Schroeder, App. 12, Kept. U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries (1923) 1924, 

 p. 12. 



•' <'ld statements to this ellect are corroborated by Lyman (Blueflshing. 

 1950, p. 10), who reports females with roe and males with milt off North 

 Carolina and near Nantucket early in summer. 



•' Hildebrand and Schroeder, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish. vol. 43, Pt. 1, 1928, p. 

 232. 



•' Hildebrand and Schroeder (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 43, Pt. 1. 192S, p. 

 232) report fry as small as 2H inches in Chesapeake Bay. 



210941— '53 -26 



bluefish by Agassiz and Whitman 98 were actually 

 those of this species. And while the identity of 

 their "bluefish" larvae has likewise been ques- 

 tioned, we believe that their identification of the 

 oldest (9 mm. long 99 ) was correct, though the 

 younger ones may have belonged to some one of 

 the mackerel tribe. 



At this stage the second dorsal fin is formed, the 

 first, however, still represented by the rudiments 

 of the future spines. The anal fin is visible, 

 also, and the tail is slightly forked. These larvae, 

 like those of the mackerel (which they much 

 resemble), have large blue eyes and large pro- 

 jecting teeth, but they are as far advanced in 

 development as mackerel twice as large, and as 

 ferocious in proportion to their si:e as the adult 

 bluefish, devouring all other small animals in the 

 tank with them. 



The bluefish fry of three-fourths of an inch to 3 

 inches long, which have often been taken along 

 shore in summer not only south of Cape Cod but 

 even in the Gulf (if Maine in some years (p. 388), 

 are presumably the product of that season's 

 spawning. And it seems that they grow to a 

 Length of 4 to 9 inches by autumn, fish of that size 

 being common in October, while general experience 

 suggests a length of 8 to 12 inches by the following 

 spring. Nothing definite is known of the rate of 

 growth of the older fish, 1 except that one that 

 \« eighed about 1 pound when it was tagged off the 

 coast of New York on August 10, 1936, was 

 reported as weighing about 9 pounds when it was 

 recap tured off Matanzas, Cuba, two years and five 

 months later (January 15, 1939), which (if not 

 exaggerated) 2 points to unexpectedly rapid 

 growth. 



The age at which the bluefish matures sexually 

 is not known. 



General range. — Widely but irregularly distrib- 

 uted in the warmer seas, its known range includ- 

 ing the eastern coast of the Americas, northward 

 regularly to Cape Cod, occasionally to outer 

 Nova Scotia, south to Brazd and Argentina; 3 

 Bermuda ; 4 eastern Atlantic off northwestern 



« Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 14. No. 1, Pt. 1, 1885, p. 13, pi. 4, figs 1-6. 



» Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 14, No. 1, Pt. 1, 1885, pi. 5, fig. 15. 



i No growth studies based on the scales or on other exact methods have been 

 undertaken for the bluefish, to our knowledge. 



: Lyman (Blueflshing, 1950, p. 10), who reports the case, suggests that the 

 fisherman who re-caught the fish "may have been stretching things a bit." 



" Frozen bluefish have recently been imported from northern Argentina. 



1 See Lyman, Blueflshing, 1950, p. 12, for photo from the Bermuda News 

 Bureau of a 15-pound bluefish caught at Bermuda, February 1949. 



