340 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



1,200 pounds each, and one in 1924 that is said 

 to have reached 1,300 pounds; and Sella 92 men- 

 tions a "fairly well authenticated instance" of one 

 caught 60 to 70 years ago off Narragansett Pier, 

 R. I., that weighed in the neighborhood of 1,500 

 pounds, was divided among the various hotels, 

 and fed 1,000 people. The largest caught so far 

 on rod and reel weighed 977 pounds and was 9 

 feet 9 inches long. 93 One of 932 pounds, taken at 

 Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, by H. E. Teller, in 

 September 1951, is the largest that has been 

 caught on rod and reel in the Gulf of Maine. 94 

 Another of 864 pounds ° 5 was 9 feet 4 inches long 

 and 88 inches in girth. 



Large tuna of the same length and caught the 

 same day may vary as much as 100 pounds or 

 more in weight, depending on their condition, as 

 pointed out by Crane. 96 Lengths and weights of 

 tuna, before being dressed, caught in Massachu- 

 setts Bay and off Ipswich in July and August 1951 

 were as follows: 28 inches, 17 pounds; 34 inches, 

 30 pounds; 42 inches, 56 pounds; 60 inches, 144 

 pounds; 63 inches, 172 pounds; 66 inches, 188 

 pounds; 68 inches, 200 pounds; 88 inches, 516 

 pounds; 93 inches, 587 pounds. Off Bimini, in 

 May and June, 1950, two 88-inch tuna averaged 

 415 pounds and three 93-inch fish averaged 450 

 pounds indicating that they are much thinner in 

 the spring in their more southern habitat than 

 they are in summer to the northward. 97 



In the western side of the Mediterranean, 

 where tuna run smaller than in our Gulf, a 500- 

 pound fish is very large and this is equally true off 

 the California coast. But tuna weighing as much 

 as 1,595 pounds (725 kilograms), if the stated 

 weights are reliable, have been reported from the 

 eastern parts of the Mediterranean and from the 

 Bosphorus near Constantinople.. 98 



Habits. — The tuna is a strong, swift fish and an 

 oceanic wanderer like all its tribe. Probably its 

 chief reason for holding to continental waters 

 along our coasts during the warm seasons is that 



" Intemat. Rev. Gesamten Hydroblol. Hydrogr., vol. 25, Ft. 1-2, 1931. 

 p. 60. 



" Caught by Coram. D. W. Hodson at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Sep- 

 tember 4, 1950. 



« Reported In Salt Water Sportsman, for Oct. 1, 1951. 



" Caught near Jordan Ferry, Nova Scolia, by Alfred Kenny In 1950. 



» Zoologica, New York Zool. Soc, vol. 21, No. 16, 1936, p. 207. 



" These records are from unpublished data furnished by Frank Mather of 

 the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Howard Schuck of the U. S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service, who have given us much first-hand information 

 on the habits of the tuna. 



M Heldt, 10 Rapp. Comm. Internat. Explor. Medit., vol. 11, 1938, p. 343 



its prey are more concentrated there and hence 

 more easily caught than over the ocean basin. 



The small, medium, and fairly large-sized fish, 

 up to 350-500 pounds or so, commonly travel in 

 small schools of half a dozen to 30 or 40 fish, but 

 sometimes in much larger schools, and each school 

 is usually composed of fish of about the same size: 

 we have never heard of large and small tuna 

 schooling together. And it seems that the very 

 large fish usually are solitary. 99 



When tuna are at the surface, as they often are, 

 they are proverbial for their habit of jumping, 

 either singly or in schools ; they may do this when 

 swimming about, or harrying smaller fishes, or 

 less often, when traveling in a definite direction, 

 in which case all that are jumping do so in the 

 same direction. 



Frank Mather, for instance, reports seeing a 

 school of 200-pounders, jumping in unison, 2 or 3 

 feet clear of the water. When large tuna jump, 

 they sometimes fall flat, making a great splash, 

 but they reenter the water a little head-first as a 

 rule, though they do not make as complete and 

 graceful an arc in the air as the various oceanic 

 kinds of porpoises usually do. When schools, 

 at the surface, are not jumping, they often splash 

 a good deal and they are conspicuous then. We 

 remember, for instance, sighting a large school so 

 employed, off the Cohasset shore at a distance of 

 about 3 miles, on one occasion. Even if they are 

 neither jumping nor splashing, as is more com- 

 monly the case, the wakes that large ones leave 

 behind them betray their presence, if the sea is 

 smooth. 



They sometimes cut the surface with the sickle- 

 shaped second dorsal fin and with the tip of the 

 caudal fin, on calm days, and they have been 

 photographed while so doing. 1 But we have not 

 seen this and experienced tuna fishermen have 

 told us that tima are not often seen finning. In 

 any case, it seems that the first dorsal fin is laid 

 back, when they do fin; at least we have never 

 heard of a tuna as showing both of its dorsals 

 above the surface, except after it had been hooked. 2 



•» Crane (Zoologica, New York Zool. Soc, vol. 21, 1936, pp. 207-211) has 

 given a readable account of the tuna off Casco Bay, which we cannot better, 

 and with which our own sightings of tuna agree. 



i See Farrington (Fishing the Atlantic, 1950 [approximate date], upper 

 photo facing p. 421), for an excellent photograph of a tuna finning. 



s See Farrington (Fishing the Atlantic, 1960 [approximate date], lower photo 

 facing p. 421), for an excellent photograph of a hooked tuna showing the first 

 dorsal fin as well as the second dorsal. 



