264 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



It is common in west Greenland waters, as far 

 north as Upernavik near the Arctic Circle, in lat- 

 itude about 72° N. 91 And it ranges in European 

 waters from Iceland and Spitzbergen southward to 

 the North Sea, where it is an important commercial 

 fish, and to the west Baltic; the English Channel 

 is the southern boundary to its regular occurrence. 



Occurrence in the Oulj of Maine. 92 — This is not 

 as familiar a fish as are the winter and smooth 

 flounders (pp. 276 and 283), for it is not common in 

 water shallower than 15 to 20 fathoms. But it is 

 probably the most abundant of all Gulf of Maine 

 flatfishes at depths greater than 30 to 50 fathoms, 

 except, perhaps, the witch (p. 285). Thus they are 

 recorded from Provincetown ; from Massachusetts 

 Bay; off Cape Ann; on Stellwagen Bank, where 

 we have hand-lined a number of them in 25 fathoms; 

 in Ipswich Bay; near Boon Island; off Cape 

 Porpoise; off Casco Bay; on Cashes Ledge, where 

 we have trawled both young and adults; off 

 Seguin; south of Monhegan (we trawled them at 

 the last four localities on the Grampus) ; close in to 

 Little Duck Island, off Mount Desert; in Passa- 

 maquoddy Bay; in St. Mary Bay; and right up to 

 the head of the Bay of Fundy. In fact, they are 

 to be caught all around the inner parts of the 

 Gulf wherever the water is more than 15 fathoms 

 deep or so, and where the bottom is smooth. 

 Trawlings, too, by the Albatross II and by the 

 Atlantis have shown that they are generally dis- 

 tributed throughout the basin of the Gulf down 

 to 120 fathoms. This, indeed, was the only 

 flatfish, other than the witch (p. 288), that was 

 taken by the Atlantis on the soft mud bottoms 

 off Cape Cod, west of Jeffreys Ledge, or off Moimt 

 Desert, at 66 to 105 fathoms during her experi- 

 mental trawlings for the edible shrimp (Pandalus) 

 in August 1936. 93 



Dabs are widespread on Georges Bank also, 

 for they were reported at many localities there by 

 representatives of the Bureau of Fisheries in 1913, 

 while we have seen catches of up to 100 per trawl 

 haul on the northern edge of Georges, in 60 to 100 

 fathoms of water. They are so plentiful along the 

 50-100 fathom zone on the northern edge of Georges 

 Bank that draggers fishing there during 1951-1952 

 were making catches averaging about 5,000 pounds 



s ' For an account of it in west Greenland waters, see Jensen (Meddel. 

 Dansk Komm. Harandersdgelser, vol. 7, No. 7, 1925, p. 24). 



« Huntsman (Bull. 1, Biol. Board Canada, 1918) gives an interesting account 

 of this fish in Canadian waters. 



« Bigclow and Schroedcr, Biol. Bull., vol. 76, 1939, p. 308. 



per day. A good example of their numbers there 

 is furnished by the dragger Eugene H of Woods 

 Hole which brought in catches of 10,000 to 25,000 

 pounds of dabs, fishing in 75 to 95 fathoms, through- 

 out the period August 1951 to January 1952. Many 

 of these fish were large, ranging from 4 to about 

 9 pounds in weight. And in this same region, in 

 the spring, they appear to be plentiful in water 

 much shoaler, for Capt. Arthur Nelson of Woods 

 Hole reports a catch of 18,000 pounds taken in 

 25-30 fathoms in four days' fishing early in May 

 1952. Also, we have the definite evidence of 

 commercial catches, as well as of newly spawned 

 eggs taken in our tow net, that dabs are plentiful 

 on Browns Bank also. 



Huntsman has calculated from fishing experi- 

 ments that they are about one-tenth as numerous 

 as cod in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. No general 

 estimate of this sort is yet possible for the Gulf of 

 Maine. But catches in gill nets (gear not very 

 well adapted for flounder fishing) of 76 dabs to 

 1,055 haddock, 51 cod, 20 pollock, and 39 rose- 

 fish near Boon Island on March 30; of 125 dabs 

 to 40 other flounders, 89 cod, and 113 haddock in 

 part of the net at the same locality on April 20; 

 and of many dabs, but more cod and haddock, 

 on May 3, 1913, 94 are pertinent here. 



This flatfish is often found in veiy shoal water 

 in colder seas. They are often seen under wharves 

 around Newfoundland, for example, according to 

 Frost. 95 And some are seined right on the beach 96 

 on the West Greenland coast. But we have never 

 seen or heard of an adult specimen caught in less 

 than 10 fathoms of water in the Gulf of Maine, 

 probably because of the high summer temperatures 

 of the shoaler waters, and they are the most plenti- 

 ful in 15 to 60 fathoms there (in our experience). 

 At the other extreme, 120 fathoms is the deepest 

 definite record for the Gulf of Maine with which 

 we are acquainted; hence this may be set as the 

 lower limit to their occurrence there in any num- 

 bers, which, by report, applies to the whole Ameri- 

 can coastline, including the Scotian banks and the 

 Grand Banks region. 



This preference of the dab for moderately deep 

 water in the southern part of its range bars it from 

 most of the Gulf of Maine harbors and river 



•' Recorded by Welsh. 



•s Research Bull. 4, Newfoundland Dept. Nat. Resources, 1939, p. 8. 

 "Jensen, Meddel. Dansk. Komm. H avunderso'gelser, Ser. Fiskeri, vol. 7, 

 No. 7, 1925, p. 24. 



