214 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



a favorable ground for horse mackerel, and they appear fairly regularly every 

 summer along the Scotian side of the Bay of Fundy near its mouth; less often on the 

 New Brunswick side. Tuna are also to be had off the west coast of Nova Scotia, 

 and fishermen often report them on Georges and Browns Banks. Various bays on 

 the south shore of Nova Scotia and about Cape Breton to the east, and the neigh- 

 borhood of Block Island to the west of the limits of the Gulf, are well-known centers 

 of abundance for these great fish every summer, where more are seen than any- 

 where in the Gulf of Maine. The following statistics of the catch of the shore 

 fisheries for 1919 (a representative year) will illustrate the local distribution of 

 tuna around the coast line of the Gulf: 



Nova Scotia: Number of pounds 



Yarmouth County 20, 400 



Digby County 4,000 



Maine: 



Cumberland County (neighborhood of Casco Bay) 4, 645 



Hancock County 



Kennebec County 



Knox County 



Lincoln County 17, 300 



Sagadahoc County 5, 875 



Waldo County 



Washington County 



York County 



Massachusetts: 



Barnstable County (chiefly Cape Cod Bay) 37, 048 



Essex County 5, 000 



Plymouth County 



Total 94,268 



Assuming an average weight of 200 pounds (probably too little) this would be about 

 450 fish. 



No definite information is available as to the annual fluctuations of the tuna, 

 but fishermen are well aware that its local numbers in any part of the Gulf vary 

 widely from year to year, and it is on record that tuna were scarce in Massachu- 

 setts Bay for two or three years prior to 1904, but so abundant during that 

 summer that the market was glutted with them. 



The fish that visit us are mostly large. We have never heard of a single young 

 one of less than, say, 20 pounds, taken in the "Gulf of Maine, but a small tuna 

 might easily be confused with the common bonito and reported as such. Further- 

 more, although the Gulf of Maine tuna are of breeding age, no ripe fish have ever 

 been seen off the New England or Canadian coasts. 



The winter home of the tuna, which summer off eastern North America, is 

 unknown. Probably they pass the cold season in deep water, as do the tuna of 

 the Mediterranean, but whether they merely repair to the continental slope, or 

 how much farther afield they wander into the Atlantic Basin, is still to be learned. 

 We are equally in the dark as to whether the large fish seen in the Gulf and along 

 the Nova Scotian coast are spent (having spawned in spring perhaps hundreds or 



