406 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



from other spawning grounds along the west coast of Nova Scotia or even east of 

 Cape Sable, as yet unmapped. 



Commercial importance. — ^Appreciation of the value of the American pollock 

 as a market fish is of comparatively recent growth. It is as good as cod salted, if 

 not better, and is a fair fish eaten fresh though it soon softens. 



The gill net has proved the most effective apparatus for the capture of pollock. 

 Large numbers are also taken on hand lines and Jine trawls and they are often 

 seined when in schools (especially the smaller sizes), but otter trawls yield com- 

 paratively few, as might be expected of so active a fish and one inhabiting the 

 mid-waters rather than the ground. Pollock can often be caught on the surface 

 by trolling, especially when the current runs strong and when the water is com- 

 paratively cool. They will also take a bright-colored artificial fly. This is so 

 strong a fish that it gives almost as good sport on a light rod as a salmon. 



^^' 



Fig. 203. — T ovacod (,MicroQadus tomcod) . v 



151. Tomcod {Microgadus tomcod Walbaum) 

 Frostfish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2540. 



Description. — The tomcod so closely resembles a small cod in the shape of its 

 fins, the projection of its upper jaw beyond the lower, the presence of a barbel on 

 its chin, and in its pale lateral line, that the one might easily be taken for the other. 

 However, the outlines of the ventral fins offer a field mark by which the two fish 

 may be separated, for while their second rays are filamentous at the tip in both 

 species, those of the cod are moderately broad, rounded, and with the filament 

 occupying less than one-fourth the total length of the fin, whereas the ventral of 

 a tomcod is so narrow, so tapering, and with so long a filament (as long as the rest 

 of the fin) that the whole suggests a feeler rather than a conventional fin. Further- 

 more the margin of the caudal fin of a tomcod is noticeably rounded, while that of 

 the cod is square or slightly concave; the eye of the tomcod is decidedly smaller 

 than that of a cod, and the general form of its body is more slender. A less obvious 

 difference is that the first dorsal of the tomcod originates over or behind the middle 

 of the pectoral, further forward in the cod; and finally, the pectoral fin reaches 



