FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 373 



The catch from any given region varies widely from year to year. For example, 

 the landings in Barnstable County, Mass., rose from less than 300 pounds in 1905 to 

 more than 13,000 in 1919, whereas less than half as many fish were caught off 

 Gloucester during the latter year as in the former. The total coastwise catch for 

 Massachusetts and Maine combined shrank by over 50 per cent from 1902 to 1919 

 and 1920, either because the fish have actually diminished in number on the inshore 

 grounds, or because the fishermen have resorted to localities less productive of this 

 particular species, which is a more likely explanation since the wolffish is very local 

 in its occurrence. 



The wolffish is general on Georges Bank (probably on the other offshore banks 

 also) , where it is caught regularly both by otter trawlers and by hand-line fishermen, 

 it being usual for vessels of these classes to bring in anywhere from 1 to 40 or 50 per 

 trip. Although it is a solitary fish, one living here and one there, and is nowhere 

 abundant in the sense that the term is applied to cod, haddock* pollock, or our other 

 important commercial fishes, these offshore grounds yielded about three times as 

 much weight of wolffish as did those inshore in 1919. We may add, to illustrate the 

 abundance of the stock of this species as compared with other fishes, that the total 

 catch in the Gulf of Maine in that year was between 300,000 and 400,000 pounds.^^ 



The depth zone occupied by the wolffish at one time or another extends from a 

 fathom or so below tide mark down to 85 fathoms at least and very likely deeper. 

 It has been reported in tide pools at Eastport, but we have never heard of it in such 

 situations or at low-water mark anywhere else in the Gulf, nor does it run up estu- 

 aries. Probably most of the local stock lives in depths of 10 to 40 fathoms. It is a 

 ground fish, always caught on hard bottom, never on mud, a weak swimmer, moving 

 by sinuous side to side undulations like a blenny or an eel, and probably it spends 

 most of its life hidden among seaweed or rocks or nosing about such surroundings 

 for food. As it passes through only a brief pelagic stage when young (p. 375), the 

 wolf may be classed as a comparative!}' stationary fish, with much less interchange 

 from one locality to another than is the case with cod or haddock. 



Although there is no reason to suppose the wolffish ever attacks other fish, it 

 snaps like a bulldog and with good aim at anything in its way — one's hands, an 

 oar, or at other fish among which it is thrown when hauled out of the water — and so 

 serious a bite can it inflict that fishermen hasten to knock it on the head as soon as 

 it is brought aboard. Goode (et al., 1884), indeed, remarks that it has been known 

 to attack furiously persons wading among the rock pools of Eastport, Me., but we 

 have never heard of such an occurrence of late years. 



The wolf is resident wherever found, to be caught throughout the year. For 

 example, about as many are brought in from Georges Bank in one month as in 

 another. 



Food. — The diet of this fish consists wholly of hard-shelled mollusks, crusta- 

 ceans, and echinoderms. So far as we can learn fish have never been found in the 

 stomach of a wolffish and the old myth that it is a terror to other fishes has been 

 exploded long since. Mr. Clapp found that the 50 or 60 fish that he opened on 

 Georges Bank had all eaten large whelks (Buccinum), cockles (Lunatia, Chryso- 



3" The amount can not be stated more exactly for want of statistics for Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy. 



