FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



483 



further up the Bay, however, as at Cohasset and 

 Swampscott, very few are caught before July. In 

 most years the best catches are made in August, 

 September, and into October, and we have not 

 heard of a tautog taken anywhere in the Gulf after 

 early November at latest. 



The tautog that frequent any particular ground 

 in the Massachusetts Bay-Cape Cod region may 

 be expected to pass the winter in a more or less 

 inactive state close at hand, as they do farther 

 south (p. 480). But we have no first-hand 

 information in this respect. 



Presumably the tautog spawn chiefly in June 

 in Cape Cod and Massachusetts Bays, as they do 

 along southern Massachusetts; perhaps into July. 9 

 But we have found no tautog eggs nor larvae in 

 our towings in the Gulf of Maine, nor have any 

 tautog less than 2 or 3 inches long been credibly 

 reported in Cape Cod Bay or to the northward (we 

 may have missed them as tautog spawn close in 

 to the coast) . And we have yet to learn whether 

 the fluctuating stock north of Cape Cod is main- 

 tained wholly by local reproduction, or is rein- 

 forced from time to time by immigrants from the 

 south. It would be especially interesting to know 

 how many tautogs find their way from Buzzards 

 Bay to Cape Cod Bay through the Cape Cod 

 canal. 



Fluctuations in abundance. — The pound net 

 catches of tautog (averaged for 3-year periods) sug- 

 gest that a moderate and irregular rise in abun- 

 dance took place hi the northern side of Massa- 

 chusetts Bay from 1890-1892 (yearly average, 140 

 pounds) to 1899-1901 (yearly average, 1,049 

 pounds), followed by a corresponding decrease so 

 extreme that none at all were reported from the 

 pound nets of Essex County for 1917 to 1919, in 

 the Massachusetts statistics, 10 only 42 pounds for 

 1920, and none for 1921. The local stock seems 

 next to have built up again about to its former 

 level, to continue so during the period 1928-1938." 

 Our angler-correspondents report that some tautog 

 are caught along the Essex County rocks every 

 summer, since then. But the fisheries statistics 

 have not afforded information as to the tautog 

 situation there for the past few years. 



• In 1950 the "spawning run" was reported as about over in Cape Cod Bay 

 by the end of the first week in June (Salt Water Sportsman for June 9, 1950). 



■° One hundred and fifty-eight pounds were reported for that year in the sta- 

 tistics of tho U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 



" Landings, Essex County, 192S-1931, 1933, 1935, 193S, 0-803 pounds, average 

 about 300 pounds. There is no reason to suppose that the 10,700 pounds re- 

 ported for 1937 came from the Gulf of Maine. See footnotes p. 415; and p. 422. 



In the Cape Cod Bay region (again according to 

 statistics of the landings) tautog seem to have been 

 scarce for some years through 1S90; then to have 

 increased in numbers to a rather pronounced peak 

 of abundance in 1895-1900, when the reported 

 catch averaged about 13,190 pounds yearly (the 

 maximum 22,264 pounds in 1895), an increase that 

 came 5 or 6 years earlier than the upswing recorded 

 for the north shore of Massachusetts Bay. There 

 appear to have been fewer in 1899 (6,2S2 pounds 

 recorded) ; perhaps not more than half as many in 

 1906 or in 1907 (3,168 pounds and 2,934 pounds 

 reported) when the publication of the catches by 

 towns was resumed, and apparently rather fewer 

 still during the 4-year period 1908-191 1. 12 



The Cape Cod Bay population seems to have 

 been at about this same level in 1917, and tautog 

 seem to have been more plentiful again in 1918, 

 when the very large catch of 36,000 pounds was 

 reported from the pound nets along the shore line 

 of Brewster. But they fell, then, to so low an ebb 

 that the reported yearly catches for 1919 and 1920 

 were only 801 and 877 pounds, respectively, and 44 

 pounds in 1921. Catch records tell nothing as to 

 the status of the tautog in Cape Cod Bay since 

 1921. 13 



The disappearance of the eel grass (Zostera) 

 about 1930-1931, must have altered their local 

 habitat for the worse. But the stock seems to 

 have built up again with the reappearance of eel 

 grass here and there. And tautog have been plen- 

 tiful enough around Cape Cod Bay during recent 

 summers for party boats, hand-lining, to have made 

 good catches there day after day. The traps at 

 Barnstable continue to take some even though 

 they are set on sand bottom, with their best catches 

 in autumn when a single lift of 4 traps sometimes 

 yields as much as 400 pounds. 



According to local report, 1950 was a very good 

 tautog season in Cape Cod waters. But the com- 

 mercial fishermen took few or none smaller than 

 one-half pound that year. 14 What this presages 

 for the future remains to be seen. 



Importance. — Tautog are not plentiful enough 

 anywhere north of the elbow of Cape Cod to be of 

 any great commerical importance, and never have 



13 Maximum, about 3,900 pounds in 1910; minimum, 635 pounds in 1909; 

 yearly average, about 1,400 pounds. 



» There is no way of knowing how great a part of the catches reported in 

 subsequent years from "Barnstable County" came from the Cape Cod Bay 

 shore; i. e., from the Gulf of Maine. 



i« Information supplied by Henry Lyman. 



