FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



59 



torpedo for any other Gulf of Maine skate or ray, 

 the rounded outline of the disk and the large 

 caudal fin identifies it at a glance. Furthermore, 

 its skin is soft and naked, without the spines or 

 thorns so characteristic of all our common skates. 

 The disk is roughly subcircular, truncate in front, 

 and somewhat broader than long. The eyes are 

 very small and set far forward. The two dorsal 

 fins, of which the first is the larger, stand on the 

 forward end of the tail, the first, indeed, partly 

 above the bases of the pelvic fins, and they are 

 separated by an interspace nearly as long as the 

 second dorsal fin. The tail fin is of ordinary fish 

 form, triangular and nearly as long as it is deep. 

 The tail is shorter than in the skates for it occupies 

 only about two-fifths the total length of the fish, 

 measured from the cloaca. The teeth are small, 

 with sharp curved points, and are in about 60 

 series, with up to 7 rows exposed and functioning 

 at one time. 



Color. — Dark chocolate to purplish brown 

 above, some with a few obscure darker spots; 

 lower surface white except that the edges of disk, 

 fins, and tail are of the same dark tint as the 

 upper side. 



Size. — Adult torpedoes are usually 2 to 5 feet 

 long or a little longer, and heavy for their size. 

 Specimens taken at Woods Hole average about 30 

 pounds, while most of those taken anywhere on 

 our Atlantic coast weigh less than 75 pounds. 

 But we have seen one only about 4 feet long from 

 Chesapeake Bay that weighed about 100 pounds; 

 one of 144 pounds was brought from Nantucket 

 to the U. S. Fisheries Station at Woods Hole 

 many years ago; and the heaviest taken near 

 Provincetown were estimated long ago by a 

 fisherman of keen observation as 170 to 200 

 pounds. 



Habits. — The most interesting thing about the 

 torpedo is its ability to give electric shocks of 

 considerable strength to anyone touching it. 

 The statement, even, has long been current that 

 the shock from a large one in rested condition may 

 be strong enough to throw a full grown man to the 

 ground. And the story is told of a dog which was 

 in the habit of wading on a Cape Cod beach in 

 shoal water to catch flounders, but was so shocked 

 by a torpedo that it ran away howling and could 

 never be persuaded to go fishing again. In fact, 

 this anecdote antedates the scientific naming of 

 the New England torpedo. But shocks of a 



strength even approaching what is suggested by 

 such reports are to be expected only from torpedos 

 of the largest size in rested condition. The voltage 

 recorded recently was 170 to 220 for one that had 

 been kept in a live well. And the most we have 

 felt ourselves from medium-sized torpedos lying 

 on the dock at Woods Hole has been a slight 

 benumbing sensation. 



The torpedo, like others of its tribe, is a bottom 

 fish. It is a fish eater. The stomach of one taken 

 at Woods Hole contained a summer flounder 

 (Paralichthys dentatus) about 14K inches long. A 

 2-pound eel, a 1-pound flounder, plaice (Pleuro- 

 nectes platessa), red mullet {Mullus surmuletus), a 

 salmon weighing 4 or 5 pounds, and the remains 

 of spotted dogfish (genus Scyliorhinus) have been 

 found in the stomachs of British specimens. The 

 wide distensibility of its jaws allows it to swallow 

 fishes much larger than might be considered 

 possible from the breadth of the mouth when 

 closed. And it is generally believed that it stuns 

 its prey by its electric shocks. Otherwise it is 

 difficult to conceive how so sluggish a fish could 

 capture such active prey. 



It bears "living" young, but there is no placen- 

 tal connection between embryo and mother. 

 And it seems that the young are born offshore, for 

 the smallest torpedo yet recorded from American 

 inshore waters (from New Jersey) was about 2 

 feet (610 mm.) long. And we doubt if it succeeds 

 in producing young in the colder waters of our 

 Gulf. 



General Range. — Both sides of the North Atlan- 

 tic M from southern Nova Scotia (La Have Bank), 

 Bay of Fundy, and Georges Bank to North 

 Carolina in the west ; w and from northern Scotland 

 to the Mediterranean, Azores, Madeira, and 

 tropical West Africa in the east. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — -The torpedo is 

 more common south and west from Cape Cod 

 than to the northward and eastward. But it 

 strays past the elbow of the Cape often enough 

 for it to be classed as a regular member of the 

 Gulf of Maine fish fauna. The most northeasterly 

 records for it are of one presumably of this species 

 taken in St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, some 30 

 years ago; one caught on a long line set for cod 



" Comparison of American specimens with one from the North Sea revealed 

 no differences. 



•' This torpedo is also reported from the Florida Keys and from Cuba, but 

 on doubtful evidence. 



