306 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHEBIES 



only 8 feet across the mouth, shows how universal they are in this part of the Gulf 

 in suitable depths. But whether in trawl nets, gill nets, or by hook and line, the 

 catches are always small compared to those of haddock and pollock. Unfortunately - 

 the published fisheries statistics throw little light on their actual abundance along 

 the coast of Maine, for not being an important market fish, they do not appear at all 

 in the general surveys for the j'ears 1898, 1902, or 1905, while it is certain that only a 

 small part of the catch was reported in 1899 (as"bream") orin 1919 (as"rosefish"). 

 However, returns of about 27,000 pounds between Cape Elizabeth and Penobscot 

 Bay in the latter year corroborate the statement that rosefish are to be found in 

 plenty all along the northern shores of the Gulf in depths of 25 fathoms or more. 

 They are also common in the Bay of Fundy, even in such inclosed waters as Passa- 

 maquoddy Bay and the mouth of the St. Croix River. Huntsman found them in 

 St. Mary Bay, they are well known along western Nova Scotia, have been reported 

 near Seal Island, and are plentiful on the neighboring fishing grounds generally. 



Habits. — In the southwestern part of the Gulf rosefish are found only below 

 1 5 to 20 fathoms depth during the summer. So few, for instance, are taken in the 

 Massachusetts Bay traps that they do not figure in the local returns, though recorded 

 for Provincetown. Goode, et al. (1884) , long ago described them as coming right up 

 to the docks in the northern parts of the Gulf (presumably at Eastport) with cunners 

 and sculpins, even during the warm months. The collection of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology contains many small rosefish 2 to 6 inches long taken in that 

 harbor probably in summer or autumn, and according to Huntsman they occur in 

 Passamaquoddy Bay at that season in water no deeper than 5 fathoms. This local 

 difference in vertical distribution suggests that the rosefish shuns temperatures 

 warmer than about 50°, which is corroborated by the fact that they have been known 

 to run up into Gloucester Harbor in great nimibers in winter "^ but never in summer; 

 and although we have not heard of them in numbers in any other harbor south of 

 Cape Elizabeth, the frequency with which they are taken in the gill nets early in 

 spring suggests a general winter migration into water shoaler than the simimer 

 haunts, succeeded by a movement out into deeper water at the approach of warm 

 weather. 



Rosefish living in water shoaler than 50 fathoms are mostl}' on bottom — witness 

 the catches on line trawls (p. 305) — chiefly on rock or on mud, and seldom, if ever, 

 on sand. It does not necessarily follow, however, that they hug the bottom as 

 closely in the deep central basin of the Gulf, where the presence of this fish is attested 

 not only by fishermen who catch them when setting for hake but by the abundance 

 of fry (p. 309), but where the ground is soft sticky mud, for rosefish live bathypelagic 

 over deep water both in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in north European waters. 

 Practical fishing experiments alone can settle this point. 



Rosefish are more abundant locally and at certain times on Georges Bank 

 (from report this applies to Browns, also) than near land. For example, Welsh 

 noted 240 taken on Georges in the four days June 20 to 26, 1912. The schedules 

 of the otter-trawl investigations of 1913 list 3,887 rosefish as caught in 22 successive 

 hauls on Georges Bank from September 26 to 30 (that is, more than one-third as 



<^ Qoode, et al., 1884. 



