434 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



of the North Sea and to the southwestern coast 

 of Iceland along the European coast. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This is one 

 of the most plentiful of the commercially impor- 

 tant fishes in all but the shoalest parts of the 

 Gulf: on the offshore banks, in or over the deep 

 central basin, and along shore. To list its known 

 occurrences would be to mention practically every 

 station where hook-and-line or otter-trawl fishing 

 is carried on deeper than 20 fathoms. Thus con- 

 siderable numbers are sometimes taken on lines 

 or trawls in 20 to 35 fathoms or more in the 

 Massachusetts Bay region both winter and sum- 

 mer, especially on or near rocky bottom, while 

 many are caught on and near Jeffreys Ledge 

 and at other spots between Cape Ann and Boon 

 Island. 



The fact that the Grampus took rosefish in 6 

 out of 7 hauls in 25 to 60 fathoms with a trawl 

 oidy 8 feet across the mouth, between Cape Ann 

 and Penobscot Bay in July 1912, and that Atlantis 

 took 2,469 rosefish in 12 hauls with a 30-foot 

 shrimp trawl in 66 to 96 fathoms in the mud- 

 floored trough west of Jeffreys Ledge in August 

 1936, show how universal they are in the western 

 coastal belt of the Gulf at appropriate depths; 

 and the depth is not too great for them anywhere 

 in the troughs of our gidf. The number of rose- 

 fish there seemed to be independent of the numbers 

 of shrimp (Pandalus) on which we may assume 

 they were f eeding, the average catch per haul being 

 almost the same (216 fish) for the group of 

 stations where shrimp were scarce as for the group 

 where they were plentiful. 28 



Rosefish are also caught in plenty all along the 

 northern shores of the Gulf in depths of 25 

 fathoms or more; they are common in the Bay 

 of Fundy, even in such enclosed waters as Passa- 

 maquoddy Bay; Huntsman found them in St. 

 Mary Bay; and large commercial catches are made 

 off the western coast of Nova Scotia (5,253,962 

 pounds reported in 1946). 



Turning offshore, the vaguely outlined trough 

 known as "South Channel" that separates the 

 Cape Cod-Nantucket Shoals area from Georges 

 Bank is one of the most productive and hardest 

 fished of the rosefish grounds (19,016,052 pounds 

 taken there in 1946); rosefish are generally 

 distributed on and around Georges Bank itself, 



» For further details, see Bigelow and Schroeder, Biol. Ball. vol. 76, 1939, 

 p. 314. 



except perhaps on its shoalest parts; also on and 

 around Browns Bank, and they range down 

 to a depth of at least 260 fathoms on the southern 

 slope of Georges Bank; 29 very likely down to 

 300 fathoms. 



The relative yearly catches, from different 

 areas, show that the inner and central parts 

 of the Gulf in general are considerably more 

 productive of rosefish than the offshore banks, 

 for the poundage reported from off western 

 Nova Scotia, from the Bay of Fundy, from the 

 coasts of Maine and Massachusetts, and from the 

 west-central part of the Gulf (including the Cashes 

 Bank region and part of the deep basin) which is 

 referred to as the "inshore grounds" in the 

 statistical reports, were about three times as great 

 as from the South Channel, Georges Bank, and 

 Browns Bank combined in 1940; about 3% times 

 as great in 1946, and the regional contrast has 

 been of this same order in other recent years of 

 record. The South Channel in turn, has been 

 many times as productive as the much more 

 extensive area of Georges Bank, 30 though there 

 were enough of them on Georges formerly for 22 

 successive trawl hauls to have yielded 3,887 

 rosefish there, September 26 to 30, 1913 (more 

 than one-third as many as haddock) . 



During 1913, rosefish made up 1.8 percent of 

 the total catch of fish of all kinds made by several 

 trawlers operating on Georges Bank, June to 

 December, and 5.9 percent in the South Channel. 



This regional contrast between Bank and 

 Channel emphasizes the very interesting fact 

 that the rosefish of our Gulf, and those of outer 

 Nova Scotian waters as well, are decidedly 

 more plentiful in the deeper basins and depressions, 

 and on soft bottom, than they are on the grounds 

 that are the chief centers of abundance for cod 

 and haddock, and for most of the commercially 

 important flat fishes. 



The statistics do not suggest any very great 

 difference in the abundance of rosefish as between 

 Georges Bank and the Nantucket Shoals-Nan- 

 s' 63 large ones taken in one trawl haul, latitude 40°29' N., longitude 67°10' 

 W., at 175-195 fathoms, by the Albatross III, May 16, 1950. 



» The total reported catch for the period 1937-1946 (no report for 1942) 

 was a little more than 15SM million pounds for the South Channel, contrasted 

 with a little less than 2 million pounds (1,876,000) for the whole of Georges 

 Bank. The catches for individual years ranged between about 9^ million 

 and about 30V4 million pounds for South Channel; between a little less than 

 29,000 pounds to a little more than 625,000 pounds for Georges Bank. For a 

 chart showing the geographical limits of the statistical areas to which the 

 catches are referred, see Fishery Statistics of the U. S., 1943, Stat. Digest, 

 No. 18, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1943, p. 95. 



