FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



411 



(et al., 1SS4) mentions several others of 100 to 160 pounds caught off Massachusetts. 

 Hundred-pounders are exceptional, however, and the largest New England cod of 

 which we have heard recently was one of 90 pounds taken off the coast of Maine 

 early in July, 1922. Even a 75-pound fish is a rarity, but 50 to 60 pound cod are 

 not unusual. The "large" fish caught near shore run about 35 pounds and those 

 taken on Georges Bank about 25 pounds. Shore fish, large and small, average 

 about 10 to 12 pounds in weight. 



The relationship between length and weight is usually about as follows for 

 fish caught on the inshore grounds between Cape Ann and Portland, though this 

 varies with the condition of the fish and their state of sexual development. 74 



A 99^-pound fish recorded by Earll was 62 inches long, and one of 100 pounds 

 caught off Wood Island on April 9, 1883, measured 65 inches, its head measuring 

 17}4 inches. Any fish of 5J4 to 6 feet will weigh 100 pounds. 



General range. — Both sides of the North Atlantic, north to Greenland, Davis 

 Strait, and Hudson Straits and south nearly if not quite to Cape Hatteras on the 

 American coast. Abundant from northern Labrador to Nantucket Shoals, and 

 to New York and New Jersey in winter, at which season a few are annually caught 

 as far south as the northern part of the North Carolina coast. The North Pacific 

 cod, with smaller air bladder ((■?. macrocephalus) , can not be separated from the 

 Atlantic cod by external appearance. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Next to the herring, haddock, and pollock, 

 the cod is perhaps the most plentiful fish in the Gulf of Maine. From earliest 

 colonial times and until the market began to welcome the haddock a few years ago, 

 cod was the mainstay of its commercial fisheries. We fancy there is no patch of 



71 Based chiefly on measurements given by Earll (1880. p. 734) and on a large series of cod measured (resh from the nets by 

 Welsh in the spring of 1913. 



