FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 289 



Locality Pounds 



Provincetown 206 



Easthani 271 



Truro 2,834 



Brewster 189 



Wellfleet 527 



Sandwich "18,100 



Sagamore "> "" 



Nahant 501 



Manchester H 



Gloucester 212 



A few tautog are taken in one or other of these traps every summer though 

 seldom in such numbers or at as many localities as in 1915. 



Only on particular rocks is it worth while to fish for tautogs. In other places 

 apparently equally favorable and harboring as many cunners never a tautog is to 

 be caught. But even though they gather and linger only at certain choice spots 

 they must travel along shore a good deal to account for their capture at so many 

 localities in traps few if any of which are situated on or near the rocky or bowlder- 

 strewn bottom which tautog usually frequent in the Gulf. 



Habits. — The habits of the tautog being such that the catches of the traps are 

 usually insignificant, and with no regular commercial fishery for it north of Cape 

 Cod, published statistics throw little light on the yearly fluctuations of the local 

 stock. As far as they go, however, they suggest a decrease during the past 20 years, 

 for the commercial catch by all methods for the coast line of Massachusetts notrh 

 of Boston fell from 2,200 pounds in 1902 and over 5,000 pounds in 1915, to only 158 

 pounds in 1919. This is in line with the fact that all along the coast of Massa- 

 chusetts, after the almost Arctic winter of 1918, tautog were reported very scarce, 

 but they seem to have increased somewhat in 1920 and 1921. It is not surprising 

 that fluctuations in the stock of tautog should parallel the character of our winters, 

 warm or cold, for great numbers of them are sometimes chilled and killed along the 

 southern shore of Massachusetts and off Rhode Island by unusually severe winter 

 weather, as happened in 1841, 1857, 1875, February, 1901, and no doubt on many 

 other occasions that have not found their way into print or into the records of the 

 Bureau of Fisheries. 



Although tautog are seldom seen before well into April or after November, 

 they are year-round residents off the southern shores of New England. It is well 

 established that they merely drop off into slightly deeper water in winter to spend 

 the cold season among eelgrass, often buried in the mud, lying in the crevices of 

 rocks, or, in the case of the young ones, in empty oyster and clam shells, usually in 

 a torpid state, moving and feeding little, but occasionally they have been caught 

 in lobster pots or on hook and line off Rhode Island even in winter. The vent of 

 this fish has been said to close over in winter — a most unlikely event for which 

 there is no definite evidence. 



11 The accuracy of this item is questionable. Perhaps part of the catch was from the Vineyard Sound, not the Massachusetts 

 Bay, shore. 



