FISHES OP THE GULF OF MAINE 449 



and Mount Desert, in Frenchman's Bay (formerly the site of an important hake 

 fishery), lilcewise the ground known locally as the "grumpy" near Isle au Haut, 

 and off Penobscot Bay. Sundry small grounds outside the islands, thence to Cape 

 Elizabeth, and all along the western side of the Gulf also yield good numbers of 

 hake, especially Ipswich Bay and the neighborhood of the Isles of Shoals, a famous 

 baking ground to which small-boat fishermen repair. Good catches are also 

 made near Boon Island on soft bottom between the hard patches, on the lower 

 slopes of Jeffreys and Stellwagen Banks, and to a less extent on Platts. Hake, 

 with flounders and rosefish, are practically the only commerical species one is apt 

 to catch on the floors of the deep basins and sinks, and a catch of 2,880 of the former 

 with 580 cusk, but no cod or haddock, made by a line trawler 15 miles southeast of 

 Monhegan on June 24 to 25, 1913, vnW illustrate how completely they monopolize 

 suitable bottoms. 



No doubt the stock of hake (white and squirrel combined) inhabiting the Gulf 

 fluctuates from year to year (this is true of any fish) , but statistics of the catches 

 do not show any signs of depletion, the annual landings in the New England States 

 having seldom fallen as low as 20,000,000 or risen above 35,000,000 poimds for the 

 past 25 years. 



The range of depth occupied by the hakes is considerable and varies with the age 

 of the fish. Like many other sea fish they spend their first months at or near 

 the surface, living pelagic, and fry of i^ to 4 inches (among wliich both species 

 are no doubt represented ") are often taken in smnmer under floating eelgrass or 

 rockweed. On calm days we have seen them darting to and fro on the surface 

 (p. 454) , but it is evident that the duration of this pelagic stage varies, for we have 

 towed fry as long as 4 inches on the surface although others seek the bottom while 

 still only 2 inches long. Nor is it known how far they may journey while at the 

 mercy of currents. When hake first take to bottom many of them do so in very 

 shallow water, fry 2 to 6 inches long being common close below tide mark in eelgrass, 

 and fish a little larger are often caught by flounder fishermen in the harbors 

 around the Gulf of Maine. Others, however, seek the ground in somewhat deeper 

 water where they have an interesting habit of hiding within the living shells of the 

 giant scallop {Pecten rnagellanicus) . This has been observed most often on the 

 outer part of the continental shelf off southern New England, but scallop fisher- 

 men have informed us that they frequently find little hake in scallops dredged off the 

 coast of Maine. Both the common species of hake are known to use this curious 

 refuge (they do not feed on the scallops but merely use their shells as a hiding place), 

 but most of the specimens so taken have proved to be "squirrels." So commonly does 

 the latter adopt this form of commensalism that Welsh records as many as 27 taken 

 from 59 scallops in one haul of the scallop dredge, 11 hake from 9 scallops in another, 

 besides many others not counted off southern New England, New York, and New 

 Jersey during the summer and autumn of 1913. 



Immature hake of slightly larger sizes (that is, up to 8 to 12 inches long) are 

 rather common close inshore in a fathom or two of water, in harbors, and even well 



" The youngest stages of the two species are so much ahke that in most cases we have been forced to list them simply as 

 hake, awaiting more critical examination than we have been able to afford them. 



