FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



95 



to Lubec Narrows on the one hand, or westward 

 past Casco Bay to Cape Elizabeth on the other,** 

 whereas the catches for 1919 were rather evenly 

 distributed along the northern and eastern Maine 

 coast as a whole. 



We find herring even more and more sporadic in 

 their appearances and disappearances, both from 

 place to place, from week to week, and from year to 

 year, passing southward around the western 

 periphery of the Gulf. Very few, for example, are 

 seen on the southern side of Massachusetts Bay in 

 some years (as in 1950 and 1951); many schools in 

 others. And herring are such wandering fish in 

 general, here today and gone tomorrow even in 

 their centers of abundance, that the successful 

 location of the weirs depends largely on intimate 

 local knowledge and on close observation of the 

 movements of the schools. 



Herring appear, also, to be far less plentiful on 

 the offshore banks and less regular in their occur- 

 rences there than they are in their inshore center 

 of abundance in the northeastern part of the Gulf. 

 Trawlers, it is true, occasionally pick up schools on 

 Georges Bank and on Browns Bank, as in 1931, 

 when catches of 3,000 pounds were reported on the 

 northern edge of Georges and of 2,800 pounds on 

 the southwestern part in October. Schools, too, 

 are occasionally reported as seen at the surface, by 

 Albatross III for instance, in April-May 1950. 

 Fishermen used sometimes to set drift-nets on 

 Georges for herring for bait in the days of the 

 long line fishery, and small numbers up to 130-160 

 per haul, were trawled by Albatross III, widespread 

 on the western part in depths of 20 to 50 

 fathoms in May 1950, as well as off southern New 

 England. 46 But it is more usual for trawlers 

 operating on Georges to pick up only odd fish or 

 none. Thus the maximum catch on any trip 

 during the otter trawl investigation of 1913 was 

 only a dozen or two; 42 hauls by the Eugene H, 

 in late June 1951, yielded only one herring, fishing 

 from Nantucket Lightship out onto the south- 

 central part of Georges; and the stomachs of cod 

 caught on Georges seldom contain herring, if 

 they ever do. 46 



The appearance of schools of large herring or of 

 small is distinctly a seasonal event off most parts 



44 Coast sectors of comparable length. 



« Average catches per haul about 56 fish at 22 to 40 fathoms, and 28 at 41 to 

 50 fathoms, but only 6 at 51 to 60 fathoms. 



« W. F. Clapp found no herring in many cod and haddock stomachs 

 examined by him on Qeorges Bank. 



of our coast, and the picture is made still more 

 complex by differences in the behavior of sardine- 

 size, "fat," and spawning herring, the reasons for 

 which are not yet well understood. 



The newly spawned fry, less than % of an inch 

 (9-11 mm.) long, have been taken in September 

 in the lower part of the Bay of Fundy, a product, 

 doubtless, of the Grand Manan and West Nova 

 Scotia spawning; also in October in Gloucester 

 Harbor where one tow-net haul yielded us a great 

 number on the 24th, in 1916. And they are to be 

 expected wherever herring spawn in numbers in 

 any particular year. It seems likely that most of 

 them remain near their birth place during their 

 first autumn and winter, when the circulation of 

 the Gulf is in its least active stage. But they 

 become widely distributed during the spring 

 (March-May), when 1% to 2 inches (30-50 mm.) 

 long, both in the lower Bay of Fundy, around the 

 entire periphery of the open Gulf, east as well as 

 west, out over the basin, and on the northern and 

 eastern parts of Georges Bank. 47 



Little seems to be known in detail about the 

 movements of herring during their first year, but 

 those that find their way into enclosed waters 

 where mid-summer temperatures are high, such as 

 Duxbury and Plymouth Bays and Provincetown 

 Harbor, appear to move out during the early part 

 of the summer, being reported as far less plentiful 

 there in June than they are in April and May. 

 Sardine-size herring, 4 to 8 inches long including 

 1- and 2-year-olds, are to be expected in abundance 

 all summer east of Penobscot Bay, and particularly 

 in the Passamaquoddy Bay region, where they 

 support the sardine fishery for which the latter 

 is famous, and where they are present throughout 

 the year. 



It is probable, however, though not proved, 

 that the 1- to 2-year-olds (fish in their second and 

 third years) do not appear along the southwestern 

 coasts of the Gulf until several months later in 

 the season than the little fish of % to 2 inches do, 

 that were hatched the preceding autumn. Thus 

 it usually is not until late June, July, or August 

 that "sperling" of 4 to 7 inches are reported in 

 numbers off the Massachusetts coast, or that we 



« During March and April 1920 we took them near Cashes Ledge, on the 

 northern and eastern parts of Qeorges Bank, off Seal Island; off Yarmouth, 

 Nova Scotia; near Macblas, Maine, and over the basin in the offing; near 

 Boothbay; and near the Isles of Shoals. Graham (Jour. Biol. Board Canada, 

 vol. 2, No. 2, 1936, p. 112, fig. 8) found them equally widespread in the open 

 Gulf in May 1932, also in the lower Bay of Fundy (none, however, at the head 

 of the Bay). 



