460 BULLETIN OP THE BUREAU OF FISHEEIES 



Size. — This rockling has been known to reach a length of 16J^ inches in Scandi- 

 navian waters but none so large has ever been reported in the Gulf of Maine, where 

 they average only about 6 to 10 inches long. 



General range. — Both sides of the North Atlantic. Its American range is 

 from the Gulf of St. LawTence (perhaps even further north) to Narragansett Bay 

 in coast waters, and to the latitude of Cape Fear (N. C.) in deep water along the 

 continental slope. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The little rockling is of no commercial value 

 and seldom comes up into very shallow water where it would force itself on the 

 notice of seaside visitors, but it is a common bottom fish in the deeper parts of 

 Massachusetts Bay as Goode and Bean (1879, p. 9) long ago remarked, while our 

 experience, corroborated by Huntsman for the Bay of Fundy, is that this applies 

 to the entire Gulf. Though it is nowhere abundant in the sense in which this 

 term applies to cod, haddock, or hake, it is plentiful enough for its young to occur 

 rather frequently in oiu" tows in season (p. 461). The definite Gulf of Maine records 

 for the adult are from St. Mary Bay (Nova Scotia) , from various localities in the 

 Bay of Fundy including Passamaquoddy Bay, from Jonesport, off Pemaquid, near 

 Seguin Island, mouth of Casco Bay, Ipswich Bay, Gloucester, Nahant Beach, 

 Provincetown, and various stations in the deeper parts of Massachusetts Bay. 

 West of Cape Cod it becomes uncommon. It has been reported at least once on 

 Georges Bank, and the Albatross trawled it on the slope off Nova Scotia and the 

 Fish Hau'lc off Marthas Vineyard. 



Rockling are bottom fish like hake, usually keeping to moderately deep water. 

 For instance, we have trawled it in 25 to 33 fathoms from the Grampus, and it is 

 most often found at considerable depths in the Bay of Fundy. Occasionally, 

 however, rocklings have been taken in shallow water, as on Nahant Beach, for 

 example; likewise in 6 fathoms in St. Mary Bay, in 7 fathoms in Buzzards Bay, and 

 in water only a few feet deep at Woods Hole. On the other hand, rocklings have 

 not yet been found in the deep basin of the GuK of Maine, but their presence on 

 the continental slope down to 300 fathoms -^ as well as in the deep gully off Halifax 

 and in the channels of the Gulf of St. Lawrence ^° is proof that depth is no barrier 

 to their populating the deepest parts of the Gulf of Maine if the surroundings are 

 suitable in other respects. The deepest recorded capture is from 724 fathoms south 

 of Cape Cod. This species is a year-round resident, except that rocklings may 

 move inshore and into shoal water in autumn and offshore again and deeper in 

 spring to account for the occasional appearance of adult rockling in very shallow 

 water at Woods Hole in winter.^" 



The name "rockling" is a misnomer, for it is not a rock fish, being found 

 chiefly on soft bottom in the Bay of Fundy, wliile those that we have trawled in 

 Massachusetts and Ipswich Bays from the Grampus were on smooth muddy sand 

 between the hard patches. Of course any rockling living in the deep sinks and 

 gullies or on the continental slope are necessarily on soft smooth ground, not on 



" Qoode and Bean (1896, p. 384) list the deep-water records. 



» Information supplied by Doctor Huntsman and Huntsman, 1918a, p. 63. 



M Sumner, Osborne, and Cole, 1913„t 771. 



