FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 477 



Halibut are also caught fairly regularly about Grand Manan (15,500 pounds 

 reported thence in 1919), but only occasionally about Carapobello and near St. 

 Andrews, and not at all along the north (New Brunswick) shore of the Bay of Fundy 

 east of St. John. On the Nova Scotian side, however, small numbers occur right 

 up to the head of the bay, and they are sufficiently numerous off Brier Island at its 

 mouth and on the fishing grounds along western Nova Scotia to bring the landings 

 for Digby County to 332,000 pounds in the year in question. 



The largest catches of halibut now made within the limits of the Gulf of Maine 

 come from the Cape Sable-Browns Bank ground, from the deeper slopes of the latter, 

 from the gully between it and Georges Bank, and from the eastern part and slope of 

 that bank. In 1919 the landings of halibut from these localities by Canadian and 

 New England vessels combined amounted to slightly more than 2,000,000 pounds. 

 A few fish are caught in the South Channel (117,471 pounds for 1919), but hardly 

 any are now found on Nantucket Shoals, where they were once so plentiful. 



The smaller banks within the Gulf likewise yield a few halibut still, the figures 

 for 1919 being as follows: Fippenies, 3,564 pounds; Stellwagen, 5,793 pounds; 

 Jeffreys Ledge, 12,733 pounds; Cashes, 3,564 pounds; and Platts, 16,921 pounds. 

 With line trawlers 49 picking up a few halibut along Cape Cod (11. 752 pounds in 

 1919), the total yield of the Gulf of Maine came to nearly 3,000,000 pounds (some- 

 thing like 30,000 individual fish) for the year in question. 



The relationship between the distribution of the halibut in the Gulf of Maine and 

 the depth of the water which they chiefly inhabit has been altered within historic 

 times by intensive fishing. At the present time this is usually classed as a rather 

 deep-water fish, being most plentiful on the deeper slopes of the banks which it in- 

 habits and in 100 to 300 fathoms of water in the gullies between them. This does 

 not seem to have been the case in the earl} 7 days of the local halibut fishery (not, at 

 least, in the Gulf of Maine), for they were then common in but a few fathoms of 

 water in Massachusetts Bay, many wintering in the gully between Stellwagen Bank 

 and Cape Cod, which is only 25 to 30 fathoms deep, while the early fishing on Georges 

 was on the shoaler parts of the bank in depths of 15 to 30 fathoms or even less. Not 

 only did the first visitors to this ground describe the halibut as schooling at the sur- 

 face in pursuit of herring and launce (not an uncommon event in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence and off Newfoundland when they are chasing capelin) , but the fish so 

 often followed their hooked companions up to the top of the water that more than 

 one vessel made a good part of her fare by gaffing them alongside. The Nantucket 

 Shoals halibut of old were likewise in less than 30 fathoms depth, and when the fleet 

 first repaired to Browns Bank and to the Seal Island grounds they found halibut 

 very plentiful in water but little deeper. In fact, it was not until 1874 or 1875 that 

 the presence of this fish was suspected in the deeper gullies or below 100 fathoms on 

 the offshore slopes of the banks. It did not require many years of fishing to catch up 

 most of the halibut living in very shallow water, and so thoroughly that although 

 we hear of odd fish close inshore every year few are taken now in less than 30 to 40 

 fathoms and most of the catch is made much deeper than this. 



a The otter trawlers that. carried investigators from the Bureau of Fisheries in 1913 took halibut on more than half of their trips 

 to Georges Bank, usually from 1 to 75 fish per trip. 



