FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 109 



nor of the west coast of Nova Scotia, for which no precise statistics are available. 

 Large though these figures are, however, and numerous though the alewives seem 

 when crowding into streams, they make but a sparse population as compared to the 

 sea herring when spread over the Gulf. For example, in the year 1920 seiners and 

 drift-netters fishing offshore brought into Boston, Gloucester, and Portland only 

 31,650 pounds of alewives and bluebacks combined, as contrasted with 4,000,000 

 pounds of herring. 10 



Habits. — The first alewives appear early in April in the few streams tributary 

 to Massachusetts Bay that they still frequent, but they are seldom seen in Maine 

 rivers or in the St. John until late April or early May, a difference in date probably 

 depending on the temperature of the water. Thereafter successive runs follow 

 (the last half of May seeing the heaviest) until well into June. In 1915, for 

 example, alewives appeared in Campbell's Creek at Boothbay Harbor on April 20, 

 and were still running as late as May 20, by which date spent fish on their return 

 trip to salt water were passing those coming in. During the early runs sometimes 

 one sex predominates, sometimes the other, but as a rule the late runs consist 

 chiefly of males and these greatly outnumber the females on the spawning grounds. 



The alewife spawns in ponds, never in running streams, each female depositing 

 from 60,000 to 100,000 eggs, according to her size. 11 Spawning lasts only a few 

 days for each group of fish, taking place at a temperature of 55° to 60°, the spent 

 fish running downstream again soon after spawning, some commencing this return 

 journey as early as May. Incubation occupies 6 days at a temperature of 60°. 

 The young alewives, 12 which are about 5 mm. long when hatched, growing to 15 mm. 

 when a month old, soon begin to work their way downstream, successive com- 

 panies of fry moving out of the pond and down with the current throughout the 

 summer. They have been seen descending as early as June 15 and by autumn, 

 when 2 to 4 inches long, the young alewives have all found their way down to salt 

 water. Thenceforth the alewife lives in the sea until sexually mature and very 

 little is known about its habits or migrations. As every fisherman knows, it is as 

 gregarious as the herring, fish of a size congregating in schools of thousands of 

 individuals (we find record of 40,000 fish caught in one seine haul in Boston Harbor) 

 and apparently any school holds together during most of its sojourn in salt water. 

 At times, however, alewives are caught mixed with menhaden, herring, or blue- 

 backs. Although alewives, immature and adult, are often picked up in abundance 

 in weirs here and there along the coast, it seems that most of them, like the "fat" 

 herring (p. 101), keep outside the islands, and the fact that odd alewives were re- 

 ported from Georges Bank in March, June, and August, 1913 (39, indeed, were 

 taken on one trip) , and a few caught in the trawls in the South Channel in Novem- 

 ber, proves that they may wander far offshore. The alewife, like the herring, drops 

 out of sight in winter, but probably it simply moves offshore then, living near 



10 This takes no account of the tremendous shore catch of herring mentioned on p. 105. 



11 The average number of eggs in 644 females taken in the Potomac was 102,800. (Smith, H. M. North Carolina Geological 

 and Economic Survey, Vol. II, 1907, pp. 1-449. Raleigh.) 



» The development of the eggs, larval stages, and young fry are described by Ryder (Report, U. S. Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries, 1885 (1887), p. 505) and by Prince (1907, pr95). 



