FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 273 



between 1800 and 1837. By 1867, however, they had reappeared off southern 

 Massachusetts, and by 1870 they were once more abundant there, but weakfish were 

 not reported again north of Cape Cod until 1884, when one or two were taken off 

 Truro and Provincetown. From then until 1895 a few were returned yearly from 

 Truro, Provincetown, Plymouth, and even from as far north as Gloucester and 

 Manchester, the annual catch ranging from an odd fish only (e. g., 1S93 and 1894) to 

 700 or 800 pounds, at most, for the entire bay. The catch in the Gulf for the next 

 few years was larger (4,892 pounds in 1896, 2 1,006 pounds in 1897, 6,046 pounds 

 in 189S, and 11,572 pounds in 1899), though the weakfish was still a comparatively 

 unimportant fish, with the catches localized chiefly on the outer side of Cape Cod and 

 in Cape Cod Bay, as might be expected of a stray from the south. In 1900, how- 

 ever, they appeared in such numbers in Massachusetts Bay that the catch jumped 

 to upward of 130,000 pounds. 32 A few were taken even as far north as Gloucester 

 and in Boston Harbor. 



This marked the commencement of a period of local abundance entirely unex- 

 pected (nothing like it had been experienced since the settlement of the country), 

 and which, with its equally sudden eclipse, is perhaps the most interesting event 

 in the history of the fisheries of the Bay. Unfortunately definite statistics of the 

 catches are not available for the crucial years, but in 1901 the fish was so plentiful 

 in Cape Cod Bay as to be a drug on the market. In 1902 and 1903 the pound nets 

 in Cape Cod Bay were often filled with schools of large weakfish, averaging about 

 5 pounds. So plentiful were they, indeed, during the latter summer that traps at 

 North Truro alone reported 280,000 pounds. This abundance continued through 

 1904, by which time it seems to have been accepted as the normal condition and 

 hence no longer worth comment. It culminated in that or the following summer, 

 for weakfish were reported as less plentiful in 1906, but nevertheless the Massa- 

 chusetts Bay traps (excluding Barnstable, Yarmouth, and Dennis) reported almost 

 half a million pounds of weakfish for that year, and this probably was not more 

 than half or two-thirds of the actual total, for the returns were incomplete. This 

 was the last big year, for the Massachusetts Bay catch of 1907 was only about 

 one-third that of 1906, a falling off that was the beginning of the end, only 8,249 

 pounds being reported in 1908, 369 pounds in 1909, and 17 pounds in 1910. We 

 do not know of a single weakfish caught in Massachusetts Bay since 1916, 3334 unless 

 a few odd fish reported at Barnstable in 1921 were taken on the Bay shore and not 

 the Vineyard Sound or Buzzards Bay shore. 



It is impossible to account for the unexpected rise and the even more sudden 

 fall of weakfish north of Cape Cod, because the opportunity is gone to gather such 

 data on the size and age of the fish, their movements, the precise seasons of the 

 catch, and the physical state of the water as might clear the question. It was no 

 local event, however, but reflected a corresponding fluctuation in the whole stock 

 of weakfish existing north of New York, for the catch of weakfish along the southern 



» Omitting the towns of Yarmouth, Dennis, and Barnstable, where traps have been operated on the Vineyard Sound as 

 well as on the Massachusetts Bay side. 



3J.3I No pertinent statistics are available for the years 1912 to 1915. 



