478 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Libbey Island prove that cunners spawn in 

 diminishing numbers eastward along the Maine 

 coast nearly to the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. 

 It is doubtful, however, whether eggs produced 

 along the coast east of Mount Desert yield more 

 than a very small proportion of fry, nor do cunners 

 breed successfully in the cold water of the Bay of 

 Fundy, where no small ones are ever seen. How- 

 ever, the Bay is simply a gap in the breeding 

 range, for St. Mary Bay is a productive nursery. 

 Both eggs and larvae were taken at various 

 localities along the outer coast of Nova Scotia by 

 the Canadian Fisheries Expedition during the 

 summer; and the shoal inshore waters in the 

 southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are a 

 productive spawning area. 89 



Larval cunners and small specimens generally, 

 like their eggs, are so closely confined to the coast 

 line that it is impossible to represent the localities 

 where we have taken them on a general chart of 

 the Gulf; in fact, all our catches of 100 or more 

 have been made either in harbors or at most not 

 a couple of miles from land. 90 There may be some 

 successful reproduction on Cashes and Jeffreys 

 Ledges. But we have found no evidence, whether 

 of eggs or of young fry, that the few large cunners 

 that wander offshore to Georges Bank produce 

 any young there. 



Variations in abundance. — No evidence is avail- 

 able as to how much the cunners may vary in 

 abundance from year to year, along the coasts of 

 our Gulf as a whole. But they may do so widely 

 at a given locality. Thus we found very few of 

 them in 1950 along the Cohasset shore, on the 

 southern side of Massachusetts Bay, where they 

 are plentiful ordinarily. And they were so scarce 

 there during the summer of 1951, that persons 

 raking Irish Moss (Chondrus) reported seeing 

 hardly a cunner around the rocks where many are 

 to be seen in most summers, and another acquaint- 

 ance who usually baits a lobster pot or two with 

 cunners taken in a cunner trap caught only one 

 occasionally in that way. 



Importance.— -The cunner was a favorite pan 

 fish once. During the lS70's the aimual catch of 

 the small boats fishing out of Boston was esti- 

 mated as not much short of 300,000 pounds, while 



" See Johansan (Contrib. Canadian Biol., New Ser., vol. 2, No. 17, 1925, 

 p. 18 [4401; also Reld, Contrib. Canadian Biol, and Fish. N. Ser., vol. 4, 

 No. 27, 1929. 



M The precise records have been published elsewhere (Bull. Mus. Comp. 

 Zool., vol. 58. 1914, p. 108, and vol. 61, 1917, p. 271). 



the fact that 104,100 pounds of cunners were 

 reported for Maine in 1889, 148,300 pounds in 

 1S98, and 281,500 pounds in 1905, shows that the 

 annual harvest was still considerable to that time. 

 But the reported catch had fallen to 30,695 

 pounds for Maine by 1919, and to about 10,000 

 pounds for the entire coast line of Massachusetts, 

 south as well as north of Cape Cod. And Maine 

 reported only 10,000 pounds for 1928 and 1,735 

 pounds for 1929, while the only cunners reported 

 for Massachusetts were 30 pounds and 45 pouuds 

 for those 2 years, respectively. From that time 

 down to 1947, commercial catches of cunners 

 have been reported for Maine in only 3 years out 

 of the 14. 91 



The landings reported for Massachusetts during 

 this period suggests ups and downs so erratic 

 and so extreme 92 that we hesitate to place any 

 dependence upon them further than that landings 

 ranging from 3,100 pounds to 18,700 pounds 

 (average 7,450 pounds) for the years 1944-1947 

 show that a small demand continues for cunners. 

 And we can witness that sizeable ones are very 

 good pan fish. 



Although not regarded as a game fish, the cunner 

 affords amusement to thousands of vacationists 

 near our seaside resorts. And the number caught, 

 of which no record is kept, is so considerable that 

 this must be classed as a useful little fish from 

 the recreational standpoint. 



Probably more cunners are caught on bits of 

 clam than on any other bait. But they will fake 

 snails broken from their shells, bits of crab, 

 lobster, or pieces of sea worms (Nereis) almost 

 as freely. And we have even caught a few while 

 trolling near rocks, for mackerel, with a small 

 spinner tipped with a bit of white fish skin. The 

 little ones are a great nuisance, often stealing 

 the bait as fast as it is offered, and because it is 

 a small-mouthed fish, very small hooks are best. 



Tautog Tautoga onitis (Linnaeus) 1758 

 Blackfish; White chin 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1578. 



»' One hundred and seventy five pounds tor 1933, 200 pounds for 1935, 45,300 

 pounds tor 1938, an amount so large that we question its accuracy, especially 

 since the entire catch was reported as made on "lines, trawl." No catch 

 statistics are available for 1934, 1930, 1941 , or 1942. 



" Reported catches for Massachusetts jumped from 45 pounds for 1929 to 

 349,251 pouhds for 1931, dropped to for 1932. 152 pounds tor 1933 and again 

 for 1935; rose to 27,800 pounds for 1937; were again in 193S; but 53,500 pounds 

 in 1940. 



