FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 82. NO. 1 



10r 



Gadus morhua 



June 23, 1980 



 n - Bay of Fundy 



- n -. 6 Passamaquoddy Bay 



,n 



-i 1 M " l " . 1 1" 1 1 1 



Aug. 13, 1980 

 10 r  n= 3 



a n = 4 



-p — i  r"-i 1 — t P-°- 



10 



Oct. 9, 1980 



 n = 2 

 □ n = 4 



-i r 



r 



FIGURE 9. — Seasonal size distributions of Gadus morhua at station 

 B in the Bay of Fundy and station A in Passamaquoddy Bay, 1980 

 and 1981. 



young cod (0+, 1 + , <17 cm) has been previously 

 reported in the western North Atlantic (Schroeder 

 1930) but is not well documented. On the other hand, 

 this occurrence of young cod in the North Sea is well 

 known (Daan 1978). During winter, juvenile cod were 

 abundant at station A or in colder winters at station B 

 (Fig. 8, 1980 and 1981). Both juvenile and adult cod 

 were more abundant at station A during our study 

 than during 1965 (20-70/tow, Tyler (1971); 1976-81, 

 50-400/tow). 



Haddock, Melanogrammus aeglefinus, were never 

 abundant during our study. Adults were captured 

 only at the hard-bottom station A during summer 

 (Fig. 8) and juvenile haddock (1+) were occasionally 

 captured at the same site in winter. Catches of had- 

 dock declined from a maximum of 25/tow to <5/tow 

 during the study period (Fig. 8). However, up to 260 

 haddock/tow were caught at station A during 1965 

 (Tyler 197 1). Decline in abundance after 1965 might 

 be the cause for the collapse of the Gulf of Maine had- 

 dock stock in 1970 (Hare 1977; Clark et al. 1982). 



Only juvenile pollock, Pollachius virens, were cap- 

 tured during the study. Pollock of the annual year 

 class (0+) were either rare or extremely abundant at 



beach sites (100+/seine haul) in a given year, 

 depending perhaps, on the size of the annual year 

 class. Pollock dominated beach catches during early 

 summer but disappeared from this region by Sep- 

 tember (Fig. 5). In years when 0+ pollock were abun- 

 dant along the beach in summer, members of the 

 same year class were also abundant the following 

 winter at station A (1976-77, 1981) and, in summers 

 of low abundance on the beach, they were correspond- 

 ingly rare offshore in winter (1977-78; Fig. 8). Large 

 numbers of pollock larvae were present in the 

 plankton during March 1979 (Scott 1980), and we 

 again encountered large number of 0+ juveniles at 

 station A in the winter of 1979-80. Present findings 

 suggest there may have been three large year classes 

 produced during our study period, 1976, 1979, and 

 1981. 



Adult white, Urophycis tenuis, and red, U. chuss, 

 hakes were common summer components at offshore 

 stations A and B (Markle et al. 1982). Juvenile white 

 hake (<15 cm) were a summer component at beach 

 stations (Fig. 5), but were rarely captured thereafter 

 and only then at offshore sites in winter. Also in 1965 

 few small hake were captured after December (Tyler 

 1971). Apparently hake leave Passamaquoddy Bay 

 in winter (Markle et al. 1982). In the present study, 

 the one time hake were observed during winter was at 

 station B in the Bay of Fundy (Fig. 8). 



The fourbeard rockling, Enchelyopus cimbrius, was 

 a regular component at station B in the Bay of Fundy 

 and occasional in summer at station A (Fig. 8). The 

 mesh size of our gear was just small enough to cap- 

 ture large individuals of this species, and it was prob- 

 ably more abundant than indicated. Larval rockling 

 were a rare summer component of inshore sites 

 (Table 4). Battle (1930) and Tyler (1971) both con- 

 sidered rockling a summer occasional in Passama- 

 quoddy Bay, occurring there during spawning 

 migration. Tyler's catch rate at station A (2-3/tow) 

 was similar to ours at that site. Larger catch rates at 

 station B (10-50/tow) may be due to rocklings pref- 

 erence for soft-bottom habitat (Bigelow and 

 Schroeder 1939). 



Silver hake, Merluccius bilinearis, was often the 

 most abundant gadoid found at offshore stations dur- 

 ing summer, and juveniles were a regular component 

 at station B year round (Fig. 10). Large numbers of 

 adult silver hake were present during fall (Fig. 10) in 

 company with other migratory summer occasionals, 

 including American shad, Alosa sapidissima; spiny 

 dogfish, Squalus acanthias; and butterfish, Porono- 

 tus triacanthus . All these fishes may carry out coun- 

 terclockwise spring to fall migrations around the Bay 

 of Fundy similar to the shad (Dadswell et al. 1983). 



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