344 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



and about 630 pounds yearly, as appears from 

 the following table. 22 



Thirty-two fish caught at the mouth of Casco 

 Bay in 1950 averaged 46S pounds, the heaviest 643 

 pounds; 23 the smallest among 34 measured by 

 Crane, 24 at Portland, Maine, weighed 65 pounds, 

 the heaviest 860 pounds. And many fish are taken 

 of 700 pounds and heavier. Similarly, 23 tuna 

 caught during the international match at Wedge- 

 port, Nova Scotia, in the second week of August 

 1950, weighed from 362 pounds to 744 pounds, and 

 72 taken there during the match of the previous 

 year averaged about 360 pounds, the largest weigh- 

 ing 857 pounds. Also, most of the tuna caught 

 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are rather large. 



The reason for this regional segregation of tuna 

 of different sizes is not known, or for the variation 

 therein from year to year. We suspect that tem- 

 perature is chiefly responsible; i. e., that the larger 

 fish are more tolerant than the small of the lower 

 temperatures prevailing in the northern and north- 

 eastern parts of the Gulf, and in more northerly 

 regions. Especially suggestive in this connection 

 is the fact that the tuna run so large off Wedgeport, 

 western Nova Scotia, where the abundant herring 

 offer excellent feeding conditions, but where the 

 water does not ordinarily warm above about 54° 

 F. along the open coast, though to a somewhat 

 higher figure locally, in enclosed situations. 



So many tuna come so very close inshore in Cape 

 Cod Bay that nearly all of the commercial catch 

 made there is taken in the traps; large schools have 

 even been sighted within Provincetown Harbor 

 (on October 11, 1950, for example 25 ) and occasion- 

 ally a tuna comes into the surf either to strip the 

 reel of some surf fisherman or to be landed (p. 347) . 

 The tuna that are taken north of Cape Ann are 

 farther out; all of them, however, are caught 



» Data gathered by the late W. H. Rich of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 

 *• Caught by Capt. Earl Larrabee; reported in Saltwater Sportsman for 

 Aug. 25, 1950. 

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

 «* Reported In Cape Cod Standard Times, October 11, 1950. 



within 30 miles or so of the land, at farthest. 

 And while a great concentration of tuna was en- 

 countered by the Albatross III on the southwest- 

 ern part of Georges Bank, on September 18, 1950, 

 when 25 were hooked and landed, all very small, 

 about 11 pounds apiece, it is unusual to see any 

 large number on the offshore banks. 



The tuna that are seen or caught in our Gulf all 

 are near the surface, or at least where the water is 

 not more than 35 to 40 fathoms deep. How deep 

 down they might be found is not known. But it is 

 likely that they tend to keep within 50 fathoms or 

 so of the surface, for the deeper water in the Gulf 

 is colder than tuna appear to like (p. 341). 



In some years the tuna appear to remain fairly 

 stationary in whatever part of the Gulf they visit, 

 for weeks at a time, as is indicated in the consist- 

 ency of catches, or the sightings reported, which is 

 equally true of them in Newfoundland waters, 

 according to Wulff. 26 In other years they may 

 disappear suddenly from one locality or another, 

 after a brief stay, and without any apparent 

 reason. In 1926, for example, when about 70 fish 

 were taken in July off Casco Bay, only 17 were 

 caught there in August, 3 in September, and only 

 1 in October (the 4th). 27 In 1950 they deserted the 

 Ipswich Bay-Plum Island region during the last 

 week of August, not to reappear there in any 

 numbers that season, though they continued 

 plentiful enough off the Maine coast farther north 

 to be worth fishing for until the end of September, 

 with some in the Cape Cod Bay-Provincetown 

 region until early October. 



There are tuna in good numbers along the outer 

 Nova Scotia coast, off Shelburne, the vicinity of 

 Liverpool at the mouth of the Mersey Kiver, the 

 mouth of the La Have Kiver, Mahone Bay, and 

 St. Margaret Bay being centers of abundance as 

 appear from landings of 258,000 pounds in Lunen- 

 burg County and 201,000 pounds in Halifax 

 County in 1950. A few, also, are seen and caught 

 around Cape Breton. It was here that the record 

 size fish was taken with rod and reel (p. 344). 



Catch records suggest that only a few visit the 

 southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 400 

 pounds were reported from the Gulf shore of Cape 

 Breton in 1944, none in 1946, and it was only in 

 one year (1925) that any were reported (975 



a International Game Fish Assoc., Yearbook, 1943, p. 65. 

 « Data from Waller H. Rich of Portland, Maine. 



