FISHES OF THE GULP OF MAINE 465 



lurk among Gorgonian corals, and they may have the same habit on those parts 

 of the offshore banks where these are plentiful. The annual landings of cusk in 

 New England ports (wliich comprise the bulk of the Gulf of Maine catch) have 

 ranged from 2 to more that 7 million pounds of late years. 



The cusk is so purely an offshore fish that it is a rare occurrence for one to be 

 caught in any harbor or estuary. For that matter, we have never heard of one 

 taken in less than 10 to 15 fathoms of water. On the other hand it is safe to say 

 that there are few if any cusk living below 100 fathoms or so in the deep basin of 

 the Gulf, but this is because of the soft sticky bottom and perhaps scarcity of food, 

 and not because of the depth, for they have been caught down to 500 fathoms in 

 European seas. Neither are cusk to be found regularly on the continental slope, 

 probably for the same reason, though Goode and Bean (1896, p. 385) place their lower 

 limit off the New England coast at 250 to 300 fathoms. 



Cusk are caught chiefly on hook and line. No doubt they spend their time 

 mostly in hiding, but gill nets and otter trawls occasionally pick up a few. They 

 are more or less solitary fish, nowhere as abundant as cod, haddock, or hake, as 

 is illustrated by the following catches counted by representatives of the bureau in 

 1913 as they came from the water: Twenty miles east of Cape Cod Light, November 

 16 and 17, 1913, line trawl, 460 cusk to 2,150 haddock and 1,228 cod; 15 miles 

 southeast of Monhegan Island, June 24 and 25, 1913, long lines, 580 cusk to 2,880 

 hake; Jeffreys Ledge, December 11 and 12, 1913, line trawl, 230 cusk to 470 haddock 

 and 475 cod; northwest part of Georges Bank, October 10 to 13, 1913, otter trawl, 



4 cusk and 12,473 haddock; 6 miles east of Boon Island, March 30, 1913, gill net, 



5 cusk, 1,055 haddock, 51 cod, 20 pollock, and 76 plaice. It also seems that cusk 

 are more stationary than most gadoids and move little from bank to bank for 

 "Massachusetts fishermen tell me," writes Goode (et al., 1884, p. 233), "that these 

 fish are usually found in considerable abundance on newly discovered ledges, and 

 that great numbers may be taken for a year or two, but that they are soon all caught. 

 Sometimes, after a lapse of years, they may be found again abundant on a recently 

 deserted ground.^*" Nor is there any definite evidence that the cusk performs an 

 in or off shore migration with the seasons. 



Cusk are so strictly bottom fish that we have never heard of one of any size 

 swimming up into the upper waters. They are sluggish and weak swimmers, but 

 they are powerful of body and when hooked they coil about the line in a troublesome 

 way. Nothing is known of the rate of growth of the cusk. 



Food. — Little is known of the diet of the cusk. European students describe 

 the stomachs as usually containing crustaceans and sometimes moUusks. The cusk 

 is not at all fastidious as to bait, accepting clams, cockles, and herring equally. 

 So far as we can learn no record had been made of its stomach contents on this side 

 of the Atlantic until W. C. Schroeder, of the Bureau of Fisheries, found crabs and 

 occasional mollusks in several taken on Platts Bank in the summer of 1924. 



Breeding habits. — What is known of the breeding habits, eggs, and larvae 

 of the cusk is due to European students. This fish spawns in spring and early 

 smnmer ^° on both sides of the Atlantic. In European waters the season lasts 



" In Vineyard Sound, according to Smith, the cusk was once not uncommon, but it has been a rare fish there tor many years. 

 '5 Welsh saw flsh nearly but not quite ripe near the Isles of Shoals in April and May. 



