76 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The sturgeon, like the salmon, shad, and ale- 

 wife, is anadromous, spending most of its life and making most of its growth in the 

 sea or in bays and estuaries, but running up the larger rivers to spawn. During 

 its sojourn in salt water it may be expected anywhere off the coasts of the Gulf of 

 Maine. There is definite record of it at sundry localities on both sides of the 

 Bay of Fundy; in Penobscot Bay; Casco Bay; at the mouth of the Piscataqua 

 River; on the Boar's Head — Isles of Shoals fishing ground, where several of from 

 3 to 4 feet were taken in the gill nets during April and May, 1913; both outside and 

 in Boston harbor; off Provincetown; and off Truro on Cape Cod. It is well known 

 in the St. John, Penobscot, Kennebec, and Merrimac Rivers, and has even been 

 taken some distance up as small a stream as the Charles River. In fact, sturgeon 

 once entered practically every stream of any size emptying into the Gulf of Maine. 

 Writing of Massachusetts in 1634, Wood (1634, p. 37) described the sturgeon as 

 " all over the countrey, but best catching of them be upon the shoales of Cape 

 Codde and in the river of Merrimacke, where much is taken, pickled, and brought 

 for England, some of these be 12, 14, and 18 foote long." 



It is only the comparative rarity of the sturgeon in the Gulf of Maine that 

 limits its commercial importance in the tributary rivers. In the year 1919 a total 

 of 20,227 pounds was landed in Maine and Massachusetts. Supposing each car- 

 cass to have weighed 50 pounds (a very low estimate), this means a total of 400 

 fish at the most. 



In former years, when our rivers were less obstructed and the sturgeons more 

 plentiful, a fishery was intermittently maintained in the Kennebec, but as far 

 back as the year 1880 the catch for the year was only 250 fish yielding 12,500 pounds 

 of meat. So far as we can learn the open Gulf has never supported a sturgeon 

 fishery, the few taken there being picked up accidentally in drift nets, traps, or 

 weirs. 62 



Habits. — Although much attention has been paid to the sturgeon in other 

 parts of the world because of its great economic importance, knowledge of its 

 movements in the Gulf of Maine is of the scantiest. The large adidt fish enter 

 the mouths of our rivers sometime late in the spring in company with the salmon, 

 shad, and alewives, slowly working then - way upstream beyond tidewater before 

 they deposit their eggs. Spawning takes place, so far as known, in May, June, 

 and perhaps as late as July. Such, at least, is its season in north European waters, 

 and what little is on record of its movements in northern New England is of the 

 same tenor. It has been suggested that some may spawn in brackish water, with 

 which the fact that females with large eggs have been taken about Woods Hole in 

 June and July (that is, at the height of the spawning season), is in accord. 



A single female fish may produce as many as 2,400,000 eggs, which hatch in 

 about a week 63 after fertilization. Judging from European experiences with 

 artificially reared sturgeon of this species, the larvae may be expected to reach a 

 length of 12 mm. within five days after hatching; 16 to 17 mm. at two weeks; 20 mm. 

 at four weeks; and 4 to 53^ inches at two months. 



11 The short-nosed sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum LeSueur) was reported from Boston harbor and from Kockport, Mass., 

 many years ago, but it is probable that the specimens in question were small common sturgeons. 



•' Ryder (Bulletin, United States Fish Commission, Vol. VIII, 1888 (1890), p. 231) has given an account of the spawning habit ! 

 and early development of the sturgeon. 



