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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



the body deepens at a much smaller size, a men- 

 haden of 20 mm. being as far advanced in develop- 

 ment as a herring of 35 mm., which makes it easy 

 to distinguish the older larvae of the two fish. 



Welsh concluded from examination of great 

 numbers of fry and from measurements and scale 

 studies of fish of various ages that menhaden 

 hatched in summer (which would apply to any 

 fry that might be produced in the Gulf of Maine) 

 are 2% to 3% inches (6 to 8 cm.) long by their 

 first winter; and average about 6% inches (16 

 cm.) by their second winter; fall-hatched fish 

 are 1% inches (3 cm.) and about 5 inches (about 

 13 cm.) long, in their .first and second winters, 

 with every gradation between the two depending 

 on the precise season when the fish are spawned. 33 

 Apparently sexual maturity is attained in the 

 season following the third winter, and a few of the 

 older fish that Welsh examined showed as many 

 as 9 to 10 winter wings on their scales. 



General range. — Coastal waters along the At- 

 lantic coast of America from Nova Scotia to 

 eastern Florida; represented in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and southward to northern Argentina, by a 

 series of named forms that differ from our northern 

 menhaden in ways that would not be apparent 

 to any one but to a trained student of fishes. 34 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The Gulf of 

 Maine is the northerly limit for the menhaden; 

 St. Mary Bay on the west coast of Nova Scotia 

 is its most easterly known outpost. Prior to 

 about 1850 the pogy seems to have been common 

 at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy; it was, indeed, 

 reported by Perley as far up the bay as St. John, 

 and fishermen spoke of it as abundant near 

 Eastport up to 1845-1850. But it seems to have 

 abandoned Fundian waters altogether 35 since 

 then except for an occasional straggler, and very 

 few menhaden have been noticed east of Mount 

 Desert and Jonesport of late years. 



Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the oc- 

 currence of the menhaden in the Gulf of Maine is 

 that it fluctuates tremendously in abundance there 

 from year to year, periods of great plenty al- 

 ternating with periods of scarcity or entire absence 



•' Young menhaden that we collected at Woods Hole on September 23, 

 1912, were SH to 4 inches (91-99 mm.) long; others taken in Salt Pond, Fal- 

 mouth. Mass., on November 24, 1949, were 4H to 6 inches long. 



« See Hildebrand (Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 107, 1948. No. 18 for a 

 revision of the genus Breroortia). One named species, P. brericaudala 

 Goode 1878, is known only from Noank, Conn.; we doubt its validity. 



••According to Huntsman (Contr. Canad. Biol., (1921) 1922, p. 69) one 

 was taken in St. John Harbor in August, 1919. 



from our waters. Thus they were extremely 

 abundant off the coasts of Massachusetts and 

 Maine, every summer, for some years prior to 

 1875, when a considerable fishery developed for 

 them in Maine. Very few, however, were taken 

 in the Gulf during the cold summer of 1877 until 

 September and October, when they were reported 

 as about as abundant as normal; practically 

 none appeared north of Cape Cod in the year 

 1879; and they were so scarce along the coast of 

 Maine for the next six years that it caused com- 

 ment when an occasional one was caught. In 

 1883, for instance, a few were reported to the 

 U. S. Fish Commission though no schools were 

 seen and many people thought they had gone per- 

 manently. But they were once more reported 

 abundant off Maine and Massachusetts in 1886; 

 they were so plentiful as far east as Frenchman 

 Bay in 1888 that the menhaden fisheries were 

 revived; they were as plentiful in Maine waters 

 in 1889 as they had ever been (more than 10 

 million pounds taken there) and they were still so 

 numerous in 1890 that four fertilizer factories 

 were established, and nearly 90 million fish were 

 taken during that season. But this period of 

 abundance was short-lived, less than half as many 

 fish being caught in Maine waters (about 41 mil- 

 lion) in 1891 as the year before, while few men- 

 haden were taken or seen north of Cape Cod in 

 1892. They were plentiful enough, however, in 

 1894, for a single steamer to seine about a million 

 fish off the Kennebec during that summer, while 

 582,131 fish were taken in Boston Harbor in 10 

 days' fishing during the last half of that August. 

 Menhaden were scarce again in the Gulf during 

 the period 1895-1897 but abundant again in 1898, 

 when about 7 million pounds were taken along the 

 Maine coast. They were scarce in 1902 (Maine 

 catch about 300,000 lb.); reported as abundant 

 again north of Cape Cod, in 1903, especially in 

 Boston Harbor; rare north of Cape Cod from 

 1904 to 1921, when odd schools were seined along 

 the Massachusetts and Maine coasts in some 

 summers, while few or none were seen in others. 

 They reappeared, however, in such abundance 

 again in the southwest part of the Gulf in the 

 summer of 1922 that 18 steamers fished for them 

 successfully for some weeks in Massachusetts Bay, 

 when upwards of 1,500,000 pounds were landed by 

 the larger fishing vessels, besides what the small 

 boats brought in. And they were so plentiful at 



