FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



79 



stray to southern New England and Georges Bank; 

 from Bermuda; from Madeira; and from tropical 

 West Africa. Mantas are also widespread in the 

 tropical-subtropical belt of the Pacific and Indian 

 Oceans, but it is not yet known whether they are 

 identical with the Atlantic species or not. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The only 

 reason for mentioning this giant ray here is that 

 a pair, judged to be 18 to 19 feet wide, were 



encountered on the southeast part of Georges 

 Bank late in August 1949, by Capt. Henry W. 

 Klimm, while out after swordfish, and so close at 

 hand that their cephalic fins and purplish color 

 were noted. The nearest record to the westward 

 and southward is of one 19 feet wide, weighing 

 1,686 pounds, harpooned by a sword fisherman 

 a few miles off Block Island and landed there in 

 August 192 1. 84 



Chimaeroids. Subclass Holocephali 



The chimaeroids, being cartilaginous fishes, are 

 allied to the sharks, skates and rays, but are 

 separated from them by many important ana- 

 tomic characters. Most obvious of these externally 

 are that they have no spiracle; that they have 

 only one external gill opening on either side; 

 that their tails are symmetrical; and that their 

 gill filaments are free at the tips like those of bony 

 fishes. The chimaeroids remotely suggest the 

 grenadiers in general body form (p. 243), but are 

 easily separable from them at a glance; first of all 

 by the softness of their bodies and by their naked 



skins, also by the location of the pelvic fins which 

 are set far back under or behind the tips of the 

 pectorals, and by the large size of the pectoral 

 fins, to list only the most obvious differences. 

 There is no danger of confusing them with any 

 other Gulf of Maine fishes, so curious is their 

 appearance. 



They lay eggs that are astonishingly large for 

 the size of the parent fish, and enclosed in brown 

 horny capsules which are elliptical, spindle-shaped 

 or tadpole-shaped in different species. But 

 fertilization is internal. 



The Chimaeras. Order Chimaerae 

 FAMILY CHIMAERIDAE 



Chimaera Hydrolagus affinis (Brito Capello) 

 1868 



Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953, p. 539 



Description. — This species of chimaeroid, the 

 only one known from within the geographic limits 

 of the Gulf, is deepest (one-sixth to one-seventh 

 as deep as long) just behind the gills, tapers 

 gradually backward to a weak slender tail, and is 

 very soft-bodied. The head is short, its dorsal 



profile oblique, the snout conical with a blunt tip. 

 The forehead of the male bears a curious cartilag- 

 inous hook, armed with recurved prickles on its 

 lower surface, which probably serves to clasp the 

 female. The mouth, on the lower side of the 

 head, is small, with thick fleshy lips; the upper 

 jaw is armed with 4 flat plates in place of teeth, 



« Reported by Gudger (Science, N. Ser., vol. 55, 1922, p. 339). There are 

 photographs of this specimen in the American Museum of Natural History 

 in New York. 



Figure 35. — Chimaera (Hydrolagus affinis), female, about 31J4 inches long, Banquereau Bank. From Bigelow and 



Schroeder. Drawing by E. N. Fischer. 



