274 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



coast of New England was more than eight times as great in 1904 (upward of 

 7,000,000 pounds) as in 1889 (about 830,000 pounds), but thereafter declined so 

 markedly that in 1908 complaint of the scarcity of weakfish was made by both the 

 commercial fishermen and the anglers of Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. 

 Less than 400,000 pounds were taken in all New England in 1919, and by 1920 and 

 1921 the weakfish had so nearly vanished from the southern as well as the Massa- 

 chusetts Bay shores of Massachusetts that the reported catches for the State were 

 but 785 and 691 pounds, respectively. Whether the next few years will see the 

 weakfish entirely disappear east of Narragansett Bay for a period of years, as seems 

 to have happened in the late seventeen hundreds, or whether we may now look 

 for an increase, the future alone can tell. Perhaps we should emphasize in passing 

 that throughout the period under discussion about the same number of pound nets 

 and traps have been operated from year to year at about the same general localities, 

 so that fluctuations in the catch do actually reflect similar fluctuations in the stock 

 of fish. 



It has often been suggested that wealdish are plentiful when bluefish are 

 scarce, and vice versa, and the argument has been advanced that the latter not 

 only devour fry of the weakfish but its food as well, and hence not only destroy 

 many but drive others away, but no convincing evidence that the fluctuations of 

 these two species of fish are in any way mutually dependent has been brought 

 forward. 



Hahits. — Although there are no weakfish in the Gulf of Maine to-day, they 

 were so plentiful in its southwestern waters for a time — and may at any time 

 reappear there in abundance — that their habits deserve more attention than the 

 fish's present status would call for. In the southern part of its range (e. g., along 

 the Carolinas) it is a resident species, as sundry authors have remarked. North of 

 Chesapeake Bay, however, it is strictly seasonal, appearing in spring, spending the 

 summer on the coast, and departing once more in autumn. At Woods Hole it is 

 caught from May (some years as early as April, others not until June) until the 

 middle of October. Probably it is not to be expected north of Cape Cod before 

 June, and although no records have been kept of its days of arrival and departure 

 there, it is not likely that it lingers in the Gulf later than September, for adult 

 weakfish disappear from the middle Atlantic coast in October. 



During their stay on the coast weakfish keep close inshore, being unknown on 

 Nantucket Shoals, Georges, or Browns Banks. They are usually found along open 

 sandy shores in the larger bays, estuaries, and sheltered waters generally, even 

 running up into river mouths. Although no precise information is available as to 

 the presence of weakfish in relation to the temperature of the water, it is well known 

 that they are extremely sensitive to cold. 



Weakfish move in schools that are usually small but sometimes consist of many 

 thousands.^^ They have usually been described as s\vimming near the siu-face, this 

 being the general rule off the southern New England coast, where great numbers 

 were- caught on hook and line within a few feet of the top of the water, and their 



» A notable and oft-quoted instance was off Eockaway Beach, N. Y., July, 1881, when a school was sighted so large that 



three menhaden steamers seined some 200,000 pounds of weakfish averaging 1}'^ to 3 feet in length and 3 to 7 pounds in weight. 



