CLIMATE AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE ANIMALS 



337 



States for any of the years between 1919 and 1931 

 in which annual surveys of fish landings were made. 

 It is reported for Massachusetts in 1931 and 1946 

 and for Connecticut in 1935 and 1946. 



Common dolphin {CorypJiaenahippurun). Was 

 reported from Cape Cod Bay in August 1949 

 (Schuck 1951b) and in July 1951 (Bigelow and 

 Schroedcr, 1953). The first record for the Maine 

 coast was reported by Scattergood (1953) when a 

 specimen was captured at Cape Elizabeth, Me., 

 in 1952. There are no records for the Gulf of 

 Maine before 1930. 



KiNGFisH {Menticirrhus saxitalis) . Scattergood 

 (1948) reports a 47-cm. specimen removed from 

 the mouth of a hair seal (Phoca vitulina) taken in 

 a fish trap at West Point on the east side of Casco 

 Bay, on August 2, 1941. 



FiLEFisH {Alutera ventralis). One specimen 

 taken October 30, 1948, in 46 fathoms off Martha's 

 Vineyard. Previously reported from the Tortugas 

 region by Longley (Arnold 1949). 



Sea b.\ss {Centropristes striatus). A specimen 

 taken in a lobster trap in the fall of 1950 at Corea, 

 Me., and identified at the University of Maine 

 (Maine Coast Fisherman, 1950b). 



Wood borer {Xylophaga dorsalis). Previously 

 unreported on the coast of Maine, this wood borer 

 caused extensive damage to lobster traps in the 

 Mount Desert area in the winters of 1949 and 

 1950. It has since extended its range east and 

 west (Dow 1950; Maine Coast Fisherman, 1950a, 

 1951). 



Sea hare {Tethys protea). A specimen was 

 captured in a lobster trap off Woods Hole, Mass., 

 in October 1953 (Hahn 1953). Two more were 

 found on the beach of Nonamesset Island on 

 December 15, 1953 (newspaper report), and J. 

 Rankin (personal communication) found more 

 than 20 in the area during the same period. 



Tube crabs {Pinniia and Polyonyi). In 1911, 

 Pinnixa chaetopterana was the common com- 

 mensal living in the tubes of Cha^topterits per- 

 gamentaceus (Sumner, Osburn, and Cole, 1913a). 

 At the present time this crab is rare in the Woods 

 Hole region, having been replaced by the southern 

 form Polyonyx macrocheles (J. Rankin, personal 

 communication). 



Green crab {Carciniden maenaa). Extension of 

 the range of the green crab north and east from 

 Cape Cod since 1874 to Passamaquoddy Bay in 

 1952 has been described by Scattergood (1952b). 



Tlie documentary evidence gathered by Scatter- 

 good establishes the slow progression of the species 

 from Provincetowii in the 1870's to Casco Bay bj- 

 1905. Proctor's (1933) survey of the marine fauna 

 of the Mount Desert region in 1933 does not list 

 the green crab. Rathbun (1930) gives the range 

 as New Jersey to Thomaston, Maine; she (1929) 

 does not fist the green crab among the Canadian 

 Atlantic fauna. 



As Scattergood (1952b, p. 6) points out, there 

 were ample opportunities for the transportation 

 and transplantation of this crab northerly by 

 lobster smacks as early as Civil War times and by 

 sardine carriers since 1900: 



The mere transportation of the crabs to other areas 

 evidentlj' did not assure their establishing populations 

 there. Conditions for the survival and successful repro- 

 duction have to be present or new and permanent crab 

 populations will not develop. Evidently such conditions 

 were not always present in many Maine areas, for if the 

 environment had been favorable, green crabs would have 

 been established along the entire Maine coast before the 

 early 1900's. If we knew what environmental changes 

 have been necessary for the recent increased abundance 

 and the greater dissemination of the green crab, we would 

 probably understand why the crabs were not more com- 

 mon in Maine waters at an earlier time. 



Since little is known about the life history and 

 biology of the green crab, it is not possible to say 

 what changes in the environment have made 

 possible the greatly increased abundance of this 

 crab northward to Passamaquoddj' Ba\\ Wallace 

 and Glude (1952) present a number of observations 

 indicating that exceptionally severe winters with 

 heav3' ice along the shore kill the green crab. If 

 this is true, then the higher temperatures in recent 

 winters seem sufficient to account for the north- 

 ward extension of the range of the green crab. 

 Examination of surface water temperatures for 

 tlie months of January and February at Booth- 

 bay Harbor (appendix table 1) shows, for example, 

 that the average temperature for the period 1906- 

 30 was 32.3° F. ; for the period 1931-49, the 

 January-February temperatures averaged 34.2°; 

 for the period 1945-49, the average was 35.1° — a 

 most remarkable increase when one considers the 

 effect on ice conditions along the intertidal zone. 

 Prior to 1930, monthly averages below 32°, in- 

 dicative of shore ice conditions, occurred with 

 considerable frequency in the months of January, 

 February, and March, so that it may well have 

 been impossible for green crabs to establish per- 



