272 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



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Figure 136. — Yellowtail (Limanda ferruginea) , Gloucester, Mass. From Jordan and Evermann. 



Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



Color. — The yellowtail is more constant in color 

 than most of the other Gulf of Maine flatfishes. 

 Its eyed side, including the fins, is brownish or 

 slaty olive, tinged with reddish and marked with 

 large irregular rusty red spots. The caudal fin 

 and the margins of the two long fins are yellow, 

 the yellow tail in particular being a very diag- 

 nostic character. The blind side is white, except 

 for the caudal peduncle which is yellowish. 



Size. — This is a medium-sized flatfish. Several 

 hundred adults caught in gill nets between Cape 

 Ann and Cape Elizabeth (measured by Welsh) 

 ran as follows: Males, average length 15% inches, 

 extremes 11% inches to 18% inches; females, aver- 

 age length 18 inches, extremes \b}{ inches to 21% 

 inches. This series includes the largest specimens 

 that have ever been reported. A yellowtail 12 

 inches long weighs about one-half pound; one 15 

 inches long, about 1 pound; and one 18 inches long 

 about 2 pounds. 



Habits. — A yellowtail is caught in very shoal 

 water now and then: We heard, for example, of 

 several taken in Pleasant Bay, Cape Cod, in 1950. 

 But 5 to 7 fathoms may be set as its upper limit, 

 generally speaking. Thus it keeps to rather 

 deeper water than either the winter flounder or 

 the smooth flounder. On the other hand, most 

 of those caught are at least from no deeper than 

 50-60 fathoms, 23 and the bulk of the catch is made 



23 One was taken at 50 fathoms by Albatross II, September 5, 1926, on the 

 northwestern part of Georges Bank, and two of about 10 inches at 90-95 

 fathoms on the northern edge of Georges Bank, by Cap'n Bill II, August 

 22,1952. 



shoaler than 40 fathoms. We saw many yellow- 

 tails trawled by the Albatross III off Marthas 

 Vineyard and Nantucket in 20 to 40 fathoms, in 

 May, 1950, but only 6 in 41 to 50 fathoms, and 

 none in deeper water. Again, in late June 1951, 

 Eugene H averaged about 240 yellowtails per 

 trawl bawl, at 26 to 45 fathoms on the western 

 part of Georges Bank, but took only three of them 

 in deeper hauls. 



Almost any sandy bottom or mixture of sand 

 and mud suits them, and most of those that Welsh 

 saw taken in gill nets on the Isles of Shoals-Boon e 

 Island grounds (p. 274) were over fine black sand 

 between the hard, rocky patches. Rocks, stony 

 ground, and very soft mud are shunned by yellow- 

 tails, as they are by most of the other flatfishes. 



The yellowtail feeds chiefly on the smaller 

 crustaceans such as amphipods, shrimps, mysids, 

 and on the smaller shellfish, both univalves and 

 bivalves, and on worms. It is also known to eat 

 small fish, but it is not likely that it can catch 

 these often. Its European relative also feeds on 

 sea urchins, starfish, and on algae at times. And 

 it is probable that our yellowtail would be found 

 equally omnivorous were then stomachs examined 

 from various localities. Fish in breeding condi- 

 tion are empty as a rule. 



The diet of the yellowtail suggests that it is one 

 of the more sluggish of our flatfishes, and there is 

 no reason to suppose that it ever travels about much 

 after it once takes to the bottom except that it has 

 been described, in Massachusetts Bay, as "in- 



