FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



By HENRY B. BIGELOW and WILLIAM C. SCHROEDER 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 



During the summer of 1912 the Bureau of 

 Fisheries, with the cooperation of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University, 

 commenced an oceanographic and biological 

 survey of the Gulf of Maine, with special refer- 

 ence to its fishes, to its floating plants and animals 

 (plankton), to the physical and chemical state of 

 its waters, and to the circulation of the latter. 

 Cruises were made on the Fisheries schooner 

 Grampus during the summers and autumns of 

 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915 and 1916, and during the 

 winters and springs of 1913 and 1915. The work 

 was interrupted by the war, but was resumed with 

 a cruise of the Fisheries steamer Albatross in the 

 late winter and spring of 1920, and was continued 

 by the Fisheries steamer Halcyon during the 

 winter and spring of 1920-21, and the summers 

 of 1921 and 1922. 



The first part of the general report, dealing 

 with the fishes, was published in 1925, as Bulletin 

 40 (Pt. 1) of the United States Bureau of Fisher- 

 ies ; ' subsequent parts describing the plankton of 

 the offshore waters of the Gulf and the physical 

 characteristics of its waters were published in 

 1926-27, as Part 2. 



The preparation of the section on the fishes was 

 assigned originally to W. W. Welsh, who had 

 gathered a large body of original observations on 

 the growth, reproduction, diet, and other phases 

 of the lives of many of the more important species. 

 The report was far advanced when it was inter- 

 rupted by his untimely death, and H. B. Bigelow 

 undertook to carry it to publication along the 

 lines originally laid down. The new edition, 

 entailing a general revision and the addition of 

 much new material, has been prepared jointly by 

 H. B. Bigelow and by W. C. Schroeder. 



i The Bureau of Fisheries was transferred on July 1, 1939, from the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce to the Department of the Interior, and on July 30, 1940, 

 it was consolidated with the Bureau of Biological Survey to form the Fish 

 and Wildlife Service. 



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AREA COVERED 



The term "Gulf of Maine" covers the oceanic 

 bight from Nantucket Shoals and Cape Cod on 

 the west, to Cape Sable on the east. Thus it 

 includes the shore lines of northern Massachu- 

 setts, New Hampshire, Maine, and parts of New 

 Brunswick and of Nova Scotia. The eastern 

 and western boundaries adopted in this paper are 

 65° and 70° West longitude, respectively. South- 

 ern strays, or northern, which have no real status 

 in the Gulf of Maine except by accident, are 

 mentioned only briefly, or are relegated to foot- 

 notes. The Gulf of Maine has a natural seaward 

 rim formed by Nantucket Shoals, by Georges 

 Bank, and by Browns Bank. We have chosen 

 the 150-fathom contour as the arbitrary offshore 

 boundary, because this will include all of the 

 species that are likely to be caught by commer- 

 cial fishermen but will exclude almost the entire 

 category of the so-called "deep-sea" fishes, which 

 are numerous in the basin of the open Atlantic 

 but are not constituents of the fauna of the Gulf 

 of Maine, properly speaking. 



The general oceanography of this area has been 

 the subject of another report, but it may not be 

 amiss to point out that the temperature of the 

 Gulf and its fauna are boreal, and that its south- 

 ern and western boundaries are the northern 

 limit to common occurrence of many southern 

 species of fishes and of invertebrates. 



SCOPE OF THE WORK 



Our aim has been a handbook for the easy 

 identification of the fishes that occur in the Gulf 

 of Maine, with summaries of what is known of 

 the distribution, relative abundance, and more 

 significant facts in the life history of each. The 

 descriptions are as little technical as is com- 

 patible with scientific accuracy, and are limited 



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