FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 485 



ofiF Cape Porpoise, off Casco Bay, off Seguin, south of Monliegan (we trawled 

 them at the last four localities on the Grampus), in Passamaquodcly Bay, in 

 St. Mary Bay, and right up to the head of the Bay of Fundy. In fact, they 

 are to be caught on hook and line or in the otter trawl all around the periphery 

 of the Gulf in depths of 15 fathoms or more wherever the bottom is smooth and not 

 too soft. They are certainly common on Georges Bank, for they were repeatedly 

 reported there by representatives of the bureau in 1913, though no record was 

 kept of the number actually taken because they were not marketable. We also 

 have the definite evidence of the capture of newly spawned eggs in the tow net 

 that there are plaice on Browns Bank as well. Huntsman, from fishing experiments, 

 has calculated that plaice are about one-tenth as numerous as cod (one-twentieth 

 in weight) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and while no estimate of this sort is yet 

 possible for the Gulf of Maine it is certain that the local stock is sufficient to afford 

 a large supply were there a market for it. Welsh, for example, recorded the fol- 

 lowing catches of plaice in gill nets (gear not very well adapted for flounder fishing) 

 during the spring of 1913: Seventy-six plaice to 1,055 haddock, 51 cod, 20 pollock, 

 and 39 rosefish near Boon Island on March 30; 125 plaice to 40 other flounders, 

 89 cod, and 1 13 haddock in part of the net at the same locality on April 20; and many 

 plaice, but more cod and haddock, on May 3. 



We have never seen or heard of an adult plaice taken in less than 10 fathoms 

 in the Gulf of Maine, though even the large ones have been caught in water as shoal 

 as 5 fathoms off' Iceland, and they are most plentiful in 15 to 60 fathoms. Eighty- 

 six fathoms is the deepest definite record for the GuH of Maine with which we are 

 acc}uainted, and probably 100 fathoms may be set as the lower limit to their oc- 

 currence there in any numbers, which applies to the whole American coast line, 

 including the Scotian and Grand Banks. Since plaice have been caught as deep as 

 350 fathoms in Davis Strait, however, it is the type of bottom or the food supply that 

 hmits their dispersal downward, not the depth of water per se. On the other hand 

 Huntsman has suggested that it is to avoid the strong light of day that this fish shuns 

 shoal water — a suggestion yet to be proven by actual experiment. The preference 

 of the plaice for moderately deep water bars it from most of the Gulf of Maine 

 harbors and river mouths, such favorite haunts of the winter flounder, but it enters 

 the deeper estuaries, particularly in the northeastern part of the Gulf — Passama- 

 quoddy Bay, for example, and St. Mary Bay. 



Plaice, like other flatfish, avoid rocky or hard bottom on the one hand and the 

 very soft oozy mud of the deep basin on the other, preferring the fine sticky but 

 gritty mixture of sand and mud that floors much of the GuH between the hard 

 patches from the 20-fathom contour out to the 100-fathom contour. 



Food. — Huntsman's (1918, p. 15) statement that the plaice feeds first on mi- 

 nute plants (diatoms) and on copepods as it grows larger and more active is the 

 only information available on the diet of the young fry while living at the surface. 

 When they first take to the bottom they eat small shrimps and other Ci'ustacea 

 of various sorts ; but as they grow they turn to a diet consisting chiefly of sea mxhins, 

 sand dollars, and brittle stars, as proved by the contents of their stomachs, though 

 they also take various shrimps, hermit and spider crabs and other crustaceans, 



