FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



213 



1931 as there had been there a year or two earlier. 97 

 This conclusion is based on the assumption that 

 yearly changes in the average yearly catches, 

 per day's fishing of a standard group of the large 

 otter trawlers, fishing consistently for haddock, 

 over the period in question, have been propor- 

 tional to the relative changes in the number of 

 haddock on the banks. In 1939-1947 the catch 

 statistics suggest that the total population on the 

 banks had, on the average, increased somewhat 

 from the relatively small population of 193 1. 98 



Landings of haddock 



The yield from Browns Bank and the Nova 

 Scotian side of the Gulf has also been significantly 

 smaller since 1939 than it was during the few 

 years previous, when American vessels began to 

 fish Browns Bank more intensively than they had 

 previously. 



The persistence of poorer catches through so 

 long a term of years in the face of sustained 

 demand, added to continued improvement in the 

 gear and in the general efficiency of the fishing 

 fleet, is only too clear evidence of overfishing. 



The decrease in the yield of haddock from within 

 the Gulf of Maine has been partially offset by 

 increased catches from the Banks along outer 

 Nova Scotia eastward to Banquereau Bank. The 

 landings, for example, were about 8 times as 

 great, from east of Cape Sable in 1947 (about 



"Herrington, Trans. 9th North American Wildlife Conf., 1944, p. 259. 

 Schuck, Commercial Fish. Rev., vol. 10, Oct. 1948, p. 1. 



" See Schuck (Biometrics, Amer. Statistical Assoc, vol. 6, No. 3, 1949, 

 p. 215, table 1, and p. 216, fig. 2). 



26,400,000 pounds) as had been the case back in 

 1929 (about 3,300,000 pounds). Further dis- 

 cussion, however, of the fishery aspects of the 

 matter would lead us too far from our main theme. 



Previous to the general adoption of the otter 

 trawl in American waters, haddock were caught 

 mostly on hand lines or on long lines; some in 

 gill nets, especially in spawning time inshore 

 between Cape Ann and southern Maine. Today 

 all but a very small part of the catch is made in 

 otter trawls. In 1947, for example, nearly 97 

 percent of the haddock that were landed in 

 Maine and Massachusetts had been taken in 

 otter trawls; only 3 percent of them on long 

 lines; and only a small fraction of 1 percent on 

 hand lines and in gill nets. 



While the haddock is of primary interest from 

 the commercial standpoint, it deserves a word 

 from the angler's viewpoint also, for it bites as 

 freely as the cod does, on almost any bait, and, 

 being a much more active fish, a haddock of fair 

 size is likely to prove an astonishment to anybody 

 who is lucky enough to hook one while fishing 

 with a light sinker. A new-caught haddock is also 

 a very beautiful object. 



American pollock Pollachius virens 

 (Linnaeus) 1758 



Pollock; Boston bluefish; Coalfish (in 

 Great Britain); Green cod (in Great 

 Britain) 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2534. 



Description. — The American pollock 99 has a 

 deep, plump body (about four and one-fourth 

 times as long as it is deep) tapering to a pointed 

 nose and to a slender caudal peduncle. Its mouth 

 is of moderate size. Its projecting lower jaw 

 (giving it an undershot facial aspect); its forked, 

 sharp-cornered tail, small ventral fins, small chin 

 barbel (as a rule the latter is lacking altogether in 

 large fish), and its beautiful olive green color, are 

 ready field marks when it is caught with cod and 

 haddock. 



Its first dorsal fin (13 or 14 rays), originating 

 slightly behind the pectoral, is triangular, and is 

 a little the highest of the three dorsals. The 

 second dorsal, also triangular, is the longest of the 



" This is the "coalfish, green cod, or saithe" of British, Scotch, and Irish 

 fishermen. The European "pollack" is a different species (Qadus pollachiua) 



