FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



353 



irregular yellow spots, particularly conspicuous below the adipose dorsal flap. 

 The dorsal fin is dusky with similar but larger yellow spots, its soft portion pale 

 edged. The adipose flap is greenish yellow, the anal is pale pinkish clouded with 

 purple and with bluish iridescence, and the pectorals are pale sooty brown, with 

 purplish reflections near their bases. 



Sizes. — Tilefish have been reported up to 50 pounds in weight, but this is 

 unusual. The largest fish we ourselves have seen (an unripe female) weighed 353^ 

 pounds and was about 42 inches (108 cm.) long. Measurements taken by Bumpus 

 (1899, p. 329) and more recently on the Grampus show that a 40-inch fish may be 

 expected to weigh about 30 pounds; fish of 33 to 36 inches, 20 to 21 pounds; and 

 30 to 32 inch fish, 17 to 18 pounds. 



General distribution arid occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The geographic 

 range of the tilefish is surprisingly circumscribed for a fish as large and locally as 

 plentiful, for it is known only along the outer edge of the continental shelf and on 

 the upper part of the slope abreast the east coast of the United States. The 



• Fig. 175. — Tilefish (Lopholatilus chamxieonliceps) 



longitude of the vSouth Channel (69° W.) is about its ea.stern limit. How far it 

 ranges to the southward is still to be determined, but none have been reported 

 dead or alive below latitude 37° 29' N. — that is, a few miles north of the mouth of 

 Chesapeake Bay. Along this zone the tilefish lives on the bottom in depths of 

 50 to about 200 fathoms, with the best fishing in 60 to 65 fathoms. Few are caught 

 much deeper than 100 fathoms and none below 200, as far as we know. Thus the 

 tilefish touche.-3 only the extreme southwest corner of our limits, but so interesting 

 are its history and its relationship to hydrographic conditions that it deserves more 

 attention than its status as a " Gulf of Maine" fish would demand. 



To begin with, it is surprising that the very existence of this large fish so close 

 to our coast should have been unsuspected until May, 1879, when Captain Kirby, 

 cod fishing in 150 fathoms of water south of Nantucket Shoals lightship, caught 

 the first specimens on his line trawl, as has often been narrated. These, and others 

 caught in 87 fathoms in the same general region the following July by the schooner 

 Olara T. Friend (Capt. William Dempsey), drew so much attention that the Bureau 

 of Fisheries sent several trips thither during the two subsequent years, resulting 

 in the demonstration that the tilefish was so abundant within the depth limits 



