508 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



St*: 





Figure 268. — Spotted wolffish (Anarhichas minor), off La Have Bank. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



Habits.- — Very little is known of its habits. Its 

 diet is much the same as that of its more common 

 relative. But it is said to keep to rather deeper 

 waters, having been caught as deep as 200 to 240 

 fathoms off Banquereau Bank 16 , to 200 fathoms 

 in the eastern Atlantic. And its geographic range 

 (see below) shows that it is confined to colder 

 water than is the common wolffish. 



General range. — Chiefly north of the Arctic 

 circle; north coast of Russia, White and Barents 

 Seas, and Iceland, south to middle Norway (vicin- 

 ity of Bergen) on the European coast; Greenland; 

 and southward occasionally to the Gulf of Maine 

 on the American coast. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine.- — Goode and 

 Bean's 17 statement that "the Fish Commission 

 has specimens from off the mouth of Gloucester 

 Harbor and from Eastport, Maine," long remained 

 the only notice of this northern fish for the Gulf 

 of Maine, 18 and fishermen of whom we have in- 

 quired have either never seen it there or they 

 have failed to distinguish it from the common 

 wolffish, which is unlikely, so striking is its color 

 pattern. But the late Walter Rich, of the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries, obtained a specimen that 

 had been taken in 35 fathoms off Cape Elizabeth 

 (now in the collection of the Portland Society of 

 Natural History); another, weighing Z X A pounds 



was caught on a long line off Portland lightship 

 on April 23, 1927. Evidently this wolffish reaches 

 our Gulf only as an accidental waif from its 

 Arctic home, one to be watched for but hardly 

 to be expected. 



It appears to occur regularly off outer Nova 

 Scotia however, though in small numbers. Thus 

 5 to 10 are usually landed at Boston each year 

 from Sable Island Bank; we have records of 7 

 caught there in 1934 ; 19 one was brought in many 

 years ago from 200 fathoms from the deep gulley 

 between Sable Island Bank and Banquereau; and 

 one from 250 fathoms from the northeast slope of 

 the latter bank. 20 Another was taken on Ban- 

 quereau in 50 fathoms, in 1932 ; 21 three were taken 

 on Western Bank in 1937; 22 five more were 

 definitely reported from Banquereau in that 

 same year; and McKenzie 23 writes that half a 

 dozen are brought in from that general region 

 yearly. 



With so many records for Nova Scotian waters 

 it is astonishing that the spotted wolffish has not 

 been reported at all in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 so far as we can learn, nor is it mentioned among 

 the fishes listed in Newfoundland waters or off 

 outer Labrador from the experimental trawlings 

 by the Fishery Research Commission of New- 

 foundland. 



THE OCEAN POUTS AND WOLF EELS. FAMILY ZOARCIDAE 



The ocean pouts and wolf eels are slender 

 eel-like fishes with the anal fin continuous with 

 the caudal. In most of the members of the family 

 the dorsal fin, also, joins the caudal equally, 

 making one continuous fin extending around the 

 tip of the tail, but in the only common Gulf of 

 Maine species the rear portion of the dorsal is so 



low that there seems to be a bare space between 

 it and the caudal. All the members of the family, 

 however, known definitely, either from the Gulf 

 of Maine, or from the outer coast of Nova Scotia, 

 are readily separable from the true eels by having 

 ventral fins (small but unmistakable) situated a 



'• Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 3, 1881, p. 82. 

 » Bull. Essex Inst., vol. 11, 1879, p. 11. 



» Ooode's (Fish. Ind. I". S., Sect. 1, 1884, p. 249) statement that It has 

 been seen in the Bay of Fundy apparently refers to this Eastport record. 



'» Bigelow and Schroeder, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 48, 1936, p. 337. 

 » Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 3, 1881, p. 82. 

 " Vladykov, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Set., vol. 19, pt. 1, 1935, p. 3. 

 » McKenzie and Homans, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Scl., vol. 19, 1938, 

 p. 279. 

 » Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Scl. vol. 20, pt. 1, 1939, p. 18. 



