FISHES OF THE GUIiF OF MAINE 95 



From there westward the presence of spawning herring has been recorded in Machias 

 Bay, about Jonesport, at Mount Desert, in Frenchmans Bay, among the islands at 

 the moutli of Penobscot Bay (Swans, Isle au Haut, and Matinicus *^), in Casco Bay, 

 and especially about Wood Island, a few miles south of Cape Elizabeth, which has 

 long been known as the resort of tremendous breeding schools. Herring also spawn 

 off' the beaches along the western shore of the Gulf — Ipswich Bay, for example, 

 about Cape Ann, in Massachusetts Bay, about Provincetown, along Cape Cod, in 

 the Woods Hole region, near No Mans Land, and about Block Island, which is the 

 southern breeding limit. Spawning takes place both along the shore line and generally 

 on the various reefs and shoals that lie from 5 to 25 miles off the coast of Maine, 

 a habit betrayed by the eggs " that are found adhering to rodes of vessels and boats 

 engaged in the cod and haddock fisheries."*" Indeed, as Moore suggests, it may 

 well be that a large proportion of the herring of our coasts are hatched on these 

 offshore shoals. We find no definite record of herring spawning on Georges or 

 Browns Banks, nor is it likely that they do so on the muddy bottoms of the deeper 

 basins of the Gulf. Herring spawn chiefly on hard, rocky, pebbly, gravelly, or 

 sandy bottoms, to some extent on clay, and probably never on soft mud. 



Depth of spawning. — Herring are not loio'iMi to spawn in the httoral zone in our 

 Gulf west of Grand Manan (possibly the spring-spawming fish may have done so 

 of old in the Bay of Fundy), nor is the spawn ever cast up on the New England 

 beaches by the surf, a fate that often overtakes it in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 Both in the Bay of Fundy and along the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts eggs 

 are deposited cliieflr from a depth of 2 or 3 down to 30 fathoms. Wliile no absolute 

 depth limits can be established it is not likeh' that our Gulf of Maine herring ever 

 spawn below 75 fathoms (in Scandinavian waters herring occasionally spawn down 

 to even 100 fathoms), for to do so would involve the deposition of the eggs on soft 

 mud bottom, where they would be in danger of smothering. 



Season of spawning. — It has long been known that, according to locality, the 

 herring spa^vn in spring, summer, or autumn, or in both spring and autumn, as, for 

 example, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and it is established that both spring-spawning 

 and summer-fall spawning schools of herring formerly existed in the Baj' of Fundy. 

 These spring spawners visited both the south (Nova Scotian) side of the bay from 

 Brier Island at its mouth in as far as Digby Gut, and the St. Andrews region on the 

 New Brunswick shore near the mouth of the bay, spawning there during April and 

 May. However, they were never very numerous except in restricted localities and 

 have now vanished, temporarily at least. Spring-spawning as well as autumn- 

 spawning herring were likewise reported to us by the fishermen along the west coast 

 of Nova Scotia, though this we have not been able to verify. Other than tliis, spring 

 spawners are neither recorded nor rumored anywhere in the Gulf of Maine. 



According to Moore the breeding schools arrive in June at Grand Manan, 

 which may fairly be termed the premier spawning ground, to spawn from then until 



8« According to fishermen's reports, says Moore, spawning herring were unknown at Matinicus until 18S0; since then the 

 neighborhood has been a productive spawning ground. 

 "• Moore (1898, p. 40-3). 



102274— 25t 7 



