FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



355 



western parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, south 

 coast of Newfoundland and Grand Banks, south 

 to latitude about 35° south. Also in the Medi- 

 terranean and Red Seas; about the Cape of 

 Good Hope; and widespread in the Indian Ocean 

 and in the Pacific Ocean, both north and south 

 of the equator. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The swordfish 

 seems to have attracted little attention in the Gulf 

 in colonial days, and though it has long supported 

 a lucrative fishery off New England, we know little 

 more of its life there today than in 1883 when 

 Goode M published his Materials for the History of 

 the Swordfish. The outer half of the continen- 

 tal shelf off Block Island and southern Massachu- 

 setts; the offshore parts of the Nantucket Shoals 

 region; Georges Bank; the deep channel between 

 Georges and Browns; Browns Bank and La Have; 

 and the banks off the outer coast of Cape Breton 

 are its chief centers of abundance off our coasts. 



On these grounds 25 or more are often sighted 

 in a day, sometimes that many are in view at one 

 time; in fact, "one skipper reports counting 47 fish 

 in sight at one time, after a week-long breeze had 

 died out to a flat calm," 65 and some 10 to 20 thou- 

 sand of them are harpooned every summer off the 

 New England coast, with as many more off eastern 

 Nova Scotia. 66 An occasional swordfish is seen off 

 Massachusetts Bay also, and along the Maine 

 coast nearly every year. During some summers, 

 of which 1884 was one, numbers of them appear 

 there, and on such occasions some are taken in the 

 Gulf from Cape Cod to Browns Bank, with Jeffreys 

 Ledge and a zone about 10 to 12 miles off the coast 

 from Boon Island to Cape Elizabeth perhaps their 

 favorite inshore resort. But the great majority 

 keep strictly to the offshore banks during most 

 years, and they are seldom seen in the Bay of 

 Fundy. Thus we find only 2,500 pounds (10 or 

 12 fish) brought in by the shore fishermen of Cum- 

 berland County, and 3 or 4 fish (800 lbs.) landed in 

 York County in 1919, while none was reported as 

 caught off the coast of Maine in 1945, though 

 193,000 pounds were landed on the Nova Scotian 

 side of the Gulf (Yarmouth Co.) in that year and 

 the offshore catch was considerable. 



Swordfish seem to be less plentiful along the 

 outer Nova Scotian coast from Cape Sable to the 

 Gut of Canso than on Georges Bank or on Browns, 

 though a few are brought in from the various 

 fishing banks every summer (p. 357). But 

 the amounts reported from the outer (Atlantic) 

 coasts of Cape Breton are so large as to show that 

 they are likely to be as numerous there as they are 

 anywhere abreast of the Gulf of Maine, or off 

 southern New England, and perhaps more con- 

 centrated. These regional variations may be il- 

 lustrated by the landings for 1945, which were as 

 follows for United States and Canadian vessels 

 combined: offing of southern New England, west- 

 ward from Nantucket Shoals, about 242,000 

 pounds ; 67 near coast of eastern Massachusetts, 

 probably one fish; 68 coast of Maine, 400 pounds; 

 Bay of Fundy (including both shores), 0; Nan- 

 tucket grounds and Georges Bank region (includ- 

 ing South Channel grounds), about 800,000 

 pounds; off west coast of Nova Scotia and on west- 

 ern part of Browns Bank, about 671,000 pounds; 

 Nova Scotian coast and banks from eastern part 

 of Browns to offing of Cape Canso, at the entrance 

 to the Gut of Canso, about 219,000 pounds; outer 

 (Atlantic) coast of Cape Breton, 69 about 2,059,000 

 pounds. 



A few are harpooned on the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 shore of Cape Breton also; 600 pounds were re- 

 ported there in 1936, 200 pounds (one fish?) in 

 1943, and 1,000 pounds (4 or 5 fish) in 1946. The 

 only other definite report of swordfish in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence that has come to our notice is 

 from Bonne Bay, on the west coast of Newfound- 

 land, where Wulff n saw one, and had a strike 

 from it (he did not hook the fish). But some few 

 are seen and harpooned on the Grand Banks, and 

 also along the south coast of Newfoundland, most 

 often along the stretch between Port au Basque, 

 on Cabot Strait, and Hermitage Bay. Here, 

 writes Wulff, they sometimes come so close 

 inshore that they "have been harpooned from the 

 small wharfs, from shore, and from dories in the 

 almost landlocked harbors," which we have never 

 known to happen in the Gulf of Maine. 



" Rept. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1880) 1883, pp. 298-394, pis. 1-24. 



• ! Rich, Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, Pt. 2, 1947, p. 71. 



» See Rich (Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, Pt. 2, 1947, pp. 55-82) 

 for a more detailed survey of the distribution of swordfish on Georges, 

 Browns, and the Nova Scotian Banks. 



WThe weights given are dressed; live-weights would be about 1M times 

 as great. 



88 Forty pounds reported, but this probably is an error, for it is not likely 

 that a swordfish that small was taken there. 



M Victoria, Cape Breton and Richmond Counties, Nova Scotia. 



'• fnternat. Game Fish Assoc. Yearbook, 1943, p.6ti. 



