CLIMATE AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE ANIMALS 



335 



and a subsequent retreat of the yellowtail from off the 

 N'ew Jersey coast in the 1920's to off southern \ew Eng- 

 hmd in the early 1940's and then to Georges Bank about 

 1949 * * *. Perhaps these retreats have occurred because 

 of the warming of the area, which has been reported by 

 Conover (1951). 



NORTHWARD EXTENSION OF SOUTHERN SPECIES 



A great many reports of the northward exten- 

 sion of the ranges of soutliern species have appeared 

 in scientific htcrature since the 1930's. This may 

 be attributed in part to an increased number 

 of interested observers, but on tliis basis we 

 would expect a nearly equal number of records of 

 the southward extension of northern forms. We 

 have noted only a few such southern extensions 

 of range and only two in recent years: halibut 

 landed March 13, 1946, near Reedville, Va. 

 (Walford 1946), and four specimens of the Arctic 

 cod (Boreogadus saicla) taken from a trap net in 

 late January and February 1951, in Mirimichi 

 Bay, N. B. (McKenzie 1953). 



In many localities, especially southward from 

 Cape Cod, reports of southern forms became 

 more frecjuent in the 1930's, a decade of peak air 

 temperatures in the present warm cycle in the 

 Northern Hemisphere (Willett 1950). At Sandy 

 Hook Bay, for example, where observations of fish 

 fauna were made for many years, three new rec- 

 ords (although not new northern records) were 

 reported by Breder and Nigrelli (1934) for 1932: 

 the half beak {Hyporhamphus roberti), the gray 

 snapper {Lutianus griseus), and the cutlassfish 

 (Trichiurus lepturus). These workers comment 

 on the rather unusual influx of southern species 

 into that area during the summers of 1933 and 

 1934. They note that the cow-nosed ray (Bhinop- 

 tera bonasun) was more common than ever before 

 observed, the round pompano {Trachinotus falca- 

 tus) was unusually abundant, and the gizzard shad 

 {Dorosoma cepedianum) was first recorded in Sandy 

 Hook Bay in October 1933. 



During the same decade, \«'e note the occurrence 

 of the striped mummichog or killifish (Fundulus 

 majalis) (p. 340) and the short big-eye (Pseudo- 

 priacanthus nltus) in Massachusetts Bay, the lat- 

 ter not having been reported there since 1859; 

 •and of the butterfish (Poronotus triacanthus) in 

 the (iulf of the St. Lawrence (Hoar 1937, Needier 

 1938) ; while a new northern record was establislied 

 for the sting ray {Dasyatis say) (Smith and Griffin, 

 1939). Merriman (1939), commenting on tiie oc- 



currence of southern species in Connecticut waters 

 in 1937, stated that "It seems probable that ab- 

 normally high temperatures in the summer of 

 1937 were responsible for the unusual variety of 

 southern species so far north." 



The unusual number of records of the white 

 shark (Carcharodon carcharias) in the Gulf of 

 Maine (Schroeder, 1938, 1939; Bigelow and 

 Schroeder, 1953) is associated with the warming 

 during this period. Schroeder (1939) describes 

 this as an "uimsual occurrence" since "scarcely a 

 dozen specimens" had been reported during the 

 past century. 



It would be interesting to know if there have 

 been any changes in the southern ranges of marine 

 animals in New England and Middle Atlantic 

 coast waters, especiall3' of the more northern 

 forms. Unfortunately, there seems to be a paucity 

 of observations bearing on this. It is perhaps of 

 significance that the capelin (Mallotus rillosus) 

 has not been reported from the Gulf of Maine 

 since 1919, the spotted wolffish (Anarhichas minor) 

 since 1927, the shanny {Leptoclinus maculatus) and 

 the Arctic shanny {Stichae^l■'i punctatus) since 1930, 

 while the staghorn sculpin {Gymnocanthus tricus- 

 pis) and the spiny lumpfish {Eumicrotremus spi- 

 nosus) have not been recorded since the last 

 quarter of the 19th century. Reports of these 

 species, which have been found in the Gulf at one 

 time or another together with a number of others 

 occurring in Nova Scotian waters, might well be 

 expected in recent years, if such reports depended 

 merely on the number and assiduity of observers. 



The trend, which began in the early 1930's, of 

 an increased frequency of reports of southern 

 species in more northerly waters has continued up 

 to the present time. The following records, 

 though by no means a complete listing, are some 

 of the more interesting occurrences of recent years. 



Butterfly ray {Gymnura altavela). Consid- 

 ered very rare on the Atlantic coast, a single 

 specimen was recorded at Point Judith, R. I., in 

 1949 (Arnold 1951). 



Atlantic roi'Nd herring {Etrumeus sadina). 

 Appear sporadically along the coast soutli of Cape 

 Cod and are likely to come in schools, as happened 

 at Long Island, N. Y., in 1890 (Bean 1903, p. 191) 

 and Woods Hole in 1905 and 1908 (Sumner, 

 Osburn, and Cole, 1913b, p. 741). Records in the 

 Gulf of Maine prior to 1930 appar(>ntly are based 

 on observations of one specimen or only a few 



