DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL NOTES ON THE SPECIES 281 



(Mitchell), more closely than it does any other member of the genus; but here again Norman's scale 

 counts point to the specific distmction being justified. (Compare Col. Venison s figures of M^^a>. 

 and M hMsi (Norman, 1937, P- 46), with the figures of M. productus and M. bthneam by H. L. 



Todd in Goode's Atlas, 1884, pi. 65.) ,,,.,. • r 1 ^u 



All the true hakes are edible : M. merluccius of Europe and North Africa, M. bibneans of the north- 

 west Atlantic and M. capensis (Castelnau) of South Africa are already the staple of important fisheries^ 

 M productus (Ayres) of the north-east Pacific has been little utilized, and the same may be said of 

 M australis (Hutton) of New Zealand; but so long ago as 1907 the British Columbia Fisheries Com- 

 mission reported that M. productus was not inferior to the Atlantic species, and it would seem that 

 Therneglecr^ due merely to the plenitude of better food fishes in these favoured regions. Mgayr 

 of Chile is captured and eaten locally, but its exploitation by modern large-scale trawling methods 

 is rendered impossible by the absence of any continental shelf on the west coast of South America 

 FinaUy the Pa^agoman species M. hubbsr is captured by the small trawling mdustry operating from 

 the mouth of the River Plate. This originated with Don Pedro Galceran in Montevideo, but the 

 U urayan enterprise failed and the small-scale industry was then carried out from Buenos A. re 

 (DevTncenzi 1926). In 1932, when Gunther visited the fish market at Buenos Aires, he found tha 

 '^eriuv^'ere selling at o 50 pesos per kg. The Buenos Aires trawlers are not known to have operated 

 Zt^Z lile so far afi'eld as th'e area we surveyed. Up to the time of our last survey i^,^^)r. was said 

 that thev rarely proceeded out of sight of the land at the mouth of the Plate. 



In orL to IsLs the potential value of Patagonian hake we may briefly consider the history of th 

 expbitatn of the three'species of Merlucaus that already provide the raw material for considerable 



The European hake, M. nrerlucaus (Linnaeus), ranges from the Norwegian Rinne southwards along 

 the edge ofThe continental shelf as far as Dakar on the Mauntanian coast, and perhaps even farthe 

 south I local race has been reported off Cape Verde (Belloc, 1937)- Belloc's observations on vertebral 

 rlrt !how that, while the previously known stocks of European hal^e/-^"-^ -- 

 m the west of Ireland, had 'vertebral numbers' regularly increasing from 50-48 (±029) o 51 ^5 

 lo6rthe number or the large sample he obtained off Cape Verde was 54-09 (±o-3) Ooc cit., 

 fi^^TWsT of exceptional interest because increased numbers towards the northern end of the 

 fig. 3)- ^his IS ot exceptioi .0 . ^;j, .o^^a and herring (numerous workers, quoted by 



1 r.;^c Tf Belloc is right n maintaining that the Cape Verde haKe are uui d , , • • 



'^^ spe -t-ana L . e.pHa.c *a. a,, ^ ^^^^^^^^Z:;^!::::^ 



-"^ '^^::X::t:z:^^t!:^"^^-^ a.f ... a„a *. 



' T ' L r o b Mlowed by the other stoeks of European hake for which data are ava.lable. 

 r rrrknutth detailed observations on vertebral numbers of Merluum wuh the pre- 

 LZs aXfinle^'that Ford (,,38) has shown to be desirable, cou.d not fa„ .0 be of exceptronal 



'"xhThake is contnron in the Mediterranean especUl, on t^.enorth«n shore whe.^^^^ 



. nrentioned ,n the literature' from the t.nre »' Ar.s.o.^ Cou h .86 . v ^ ■ ■ • P^ J ;__^ l^ ^^^ ^^^ 



rpo;tL':tcid;:—i^^^ 



