FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



115 



The only Gulf of Maine rivers to which shad resort regularly at the present 

 time are the Annapolis, Petit Codiac, Shubenacadie, and St. John, tributary to the 

 Bay of Fundy, and the St. Croix, 17 Pleasant, Harrington, Penobscot, and Kenne- 

 bec Rivers 1S in Maine. In the year 1896^ 290,122 shad were reported as caught in 

 the Kennebec system; 900 in the Pleasant; 300 in the Harrington River; only 114 

 in the Penobscot and 12 in the St. Croix; 100 in the Piscataqua; and 7 in the Merri- 

 mac. Since then the stock has fallen even lower, for in 1919 the catch in Washing- 

 ton County, Me., which includes the St. Croix, Pleasant, and Harrington Rivers, 

 was only 400 pounds, say 100 fish, assuming them to average 4 pounds, with only 

 131 pounds (30 to 40 fish) taken in the Penobscot River, 3,121 pounds (700 to 800 

 fish) in Penobscot Bay, and 178,434 pounds (about 4.5,000 fish) from the Kennebec, 

 its tributary estuaries and neighboring shore line (Sagadahoc and Lincoln Counties) , 

 that is, only about one-sixth as many as in 1896. In 1919 the total inshore and 

 offshore catch for American fishermen in the Gulf of Maine north of Cape Cod was 

 about 460,000 pounds (about 115,000 fish). No statistics are available for the few 

 shad caught in the Bay of Fundy that year, but in 1916-17 the catch of shad in 

 the Bay of Fundy was about 365,000 pounds, with about 9,000 pounds more along 

 the west coast of Nova Scotia. 



The shad in salt water. — The life of the shad in salt water has long been con- 

 sidered something of a mystery, but evidence gradually accumulates to the effect 

 that its movements there are analogous to those of the herring, and that it does not 

 perform the extensive north and south migrations with which it was formerly 

 credited. 



Commencing with the spent shad on their return to the sea 19 we find the 

 New Brunswick fish (no doubt the Nova Scotian, also) making their way to the 

 head of the Bay of Fundy on their return to the sea to fatten until they become 

 the " fall shad " that are locally considered the choicest of fish. Large spent shad — 

 presumably fish that have spawned in the Kennebec — are regularly caught in 

 September and October about Mount Desert, where they have been the object of 



" The St. Croix formerly supported a large stock of shad. For 8 or 9 years prior to 1915 none came, but shad were again 

 fairly plentiful in 1915 to 1916, according to investigations made by H. F. Taylor of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 



18 Shad have been entirely extirpated from the Saco, where they were formerly plentiful. 



19 The following notes are based largely on reports by reliable fishermen and on our own observations, which we have gathered 

 from catches during our several years' work on the New England coast. 



