FISHES OF THE GULF 0* MAINE 213 



behind the second dorsal and the anal fins. The tail fin is much broader than long, 

 its margin deeply limate, its two lobes sharp pointed, just as it is in the bonitos. 

 The pectoral and ventral fins are of moderate size, the former scimitar-shaped and 

 much longer than broad. 



Color. — The back is dark lustrous steel blue or nearly black, with gray or green 

 reflections; the cheeks silver; the sides and belly silvery gray, often with large silvery 

 spots and bands, and iridescent with pink. The first dorsal is dusky to blackish; 

 the second dusky to reddish brown; the dorsal finlets yellow with dark edgings. 

 The anal fin is silvery gray; the anal finlets the same, or yellow; the caudal dusky 

 but more or less silvery; the ventrals and pectorals blackish above and silvery 

 gray below." 



Size. — This is the largest Gulf of Maine fish, except some sharks. It is said 

 to reach a length of 14 feet or more, and a weight of 1,600 pounds,'* with fish of 

 1,000 pounds not uncommon. But few of the largest have actually been Meighed 

 as taken from the water, and although monsters are not unheard of, the heaviest 

 Rhode Island fish on record weighed only 750 pounds." In the Mediterranean, 

 where tuna are far more plentiful than in the Gulf of Maine but run smaller, a 500- 

 pound fish is a giant, and this is equally true off the California coast. 



General range. — Warmer parts of the Atlantic (including the Mediterranean) 

 and Pacific; north to Newfoundland on the east coast of America. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Although every fisherman knows the "horse 

 mackerel," and although this great fish visits all parts of the Gulf of Maine, we know 

 little more of its comings and goings there than when Storer called attention to its 

 abundance about Provincctown three-quarters of a century ago. Rarity is not to 

 blame for this — it is common enough — but the fact that little attention has been 

 paid to it for want of market value. It is a yearly visitor to the Gulf, appearing 

 in June and remaining throughout the summer, to disappear in October. 



Food and habits. — Tuna prey on smaller fishes, particularly on menhaden and 

 mackerel, of which they are often full. The}^ also destroy great quantities of herring 

 and have been known to swallow whole dogfish as large as 8 pounds. They feed, in 

 fact, on all the smaller schoohng fishes, the particular species depending on the 

 local supply, and also on squid. It is not unusual for horse mackerel to strand — 

 probably in pursuit of prey. Though so voracious the tuna is proverbially a timid 

 fish and easily frightened. Like all its relatives it is a schooling fish, and due to its 

 habit of leaping even a few are apt to be noticed. 



The local distribution of tuna within the gulf is no doubt governed by that of 

 the fish on which it preys. The entrance of Massachusetts Bay, on the Cape Cod 

 side, has long been known as a resort of "horse mackerel, "'° and from time to time 

 tuna are seen all around the shores of the bay — for that matter along the whole 

 western and northern coast line of the Gulf — and they have been recorded from 

 various localities in Maine. The region centering at Casco Bay has been reported 



" The foregoing description of the color is based on accounts of freshly caught tuna by Storer (1863-1867) and by Nichols 

 (Copeia, No. Ill, Oct. 20, 1922, pp. 73-74); and on fish we have ourselves seen. 



" A fish of this size was reported in the Boston Transcript for July 20, 1923, as recently taken at Manasquan, N. J. 



■' Tracy, 1910, p. 103. 



'fl Many years ago Captain .\twood spoke of seeing as many as 50 in a day there. 



