526 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



General range. — -The extreme range of the goosefish on the coast of eastern 

 North America is from the Newfoundland Banks and Gulf of St. Lawrence to 

 North Carolina''^ in shoal water, and as far south as the Barbadoes in deep water, 

 if these southern specimens ' actually belong to the same species. It is equally 

 common on the other side of the North Atlantic. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This is a familiar fish in the Gulf of Maine 

 both along shore and on the outer fishing banks. It has been recorded in print 

 from the west coast of Nova Scotia (St. Mary Bay) and from various localities 

 in the Bay of Fundy where, according to Huntsman, large ones are frequently 

 taken on line trawls or found stranded on the beach. It is well known, if not 

 abundant, all along the coast of Maine,^ and we once caught as many as eight (all 

 large) in Ipswich Bay in one haul of a beam trawl only 8 feet across the mouth. 

 In Massachusetts Bay goosefish are most common on the smooth bottom south 

 of Boston, and they are so nimierous in Cape Cod Bay that one can hardly walk 

 the beach for an afternoon without finding a jawbone bleaching on the sand, 

 which applies equally all along the outer shores of Cape Cod where they often 

 strand. Fishermen also speak of them as common on and about Stellwagen Bank, 

 while goosefish formed about 1 per cent (in numbers of individuals) of the catches 

 of certain otter trawlers in the South Channel and on Georges Bank in 1913. They 

 are also reported to be equally plentiful on Browns Bank. 



The depth zone occupied by this fish in the inner parts of the GuK of Maine 

 extends from just below tide mark down to at least 50 or 60 fathoms. We can not 

 say whether they inhabit the very soft bottoms of the deeper basin, but there is 

 nothing in the depth of the latter to prevent them, for goosefish have been trawled 

 down to 365 fathoms on the continental slope off southern New England and down 

 to at least 100 fathoms off the outer coast of Nova Scotia. 



Food. — The most interesting phase in the life of the goosefish is its insatiable 

 appetite. Its larv^, like most yoimg fish, feed on various small pelagic animals, 

 copepods, crustacean larva, and especially on Sagittse; and since Sagittae are the 

 chief diet of young goosefish in the Adriatic during the life of the latter near the 

 surface very likely they serve the same purpose in the Gulf of Maine. 



After the goosefish takes to the bottom it becomes, in the main, a fisheater, 

 and the following Gulf of Maine species have been recorded from its stomach: 

 Spiny dogfish, skates of various kinds, eels, launce, herring, alewives, menhaden, 

 smelts, mackerel, weakfish, cunners, tautog, sea bass, butterfish, puffers, various 

 sculpins, sea ravens, sea snails, silver hake, tomcod, cod, haddock, hake, witches, 

 plaice, dab, winter fiounders, and various other species of flatfish unnamed, as well 

 as its own kind.^ As one of its vernacular names implies, goosefish often capture 

 seabirds — cormorants, herring gulls, widgeons, scoters, loons, guillemots, and 



'» Smith (Fishes of North Carolina, North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey, Vol. II, 1907) describes it as being 

 very common at Cape Lookout, and we have seen many stranded on the beach in Pamlico Sound, a few miles north of Cape 

 Hatteras, in winter. 



' Ooode and Bean, 1896, p. 486. 



• Reported from Eastport, from the outer part of Penobscot Bay, from sundry localities in Casco Bay, and otE Saco Bay, 

 while the Ommpws trawled it off Monhegan Island and off Casco Bay, and I have known goosefish to come ashore on Mount 

 Desert Island. 



2 Also sundry European species not necessary to mention here. 



