FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



127 



are not larger than can be credited to such of the 

 Maine rivers as still have runs of salmon. 



It seems certain, also, that only odd salmon from 

 the Penobscot and from the rivers farther east 

 ordinarily disperse westward and southward be- 

 yond Casco Bay, for while the average catch for the 

 coast of Maine east of that point has averaged 

 about 12,000 pounds (some 1,200 fish) for the 10 

 most recent years of record 74 combined, the cor- 

 responding 10-year average for the whole western 

 side of the Gulf from Cape Elizabeth to the elbow 

 of Cape Cod was only 600 to 700 pounds, or some 

 60 to 80 fish at most, with more than 100 pounds 

 reported in only 5 of the 10 years and none in 

 3 of the years. Further evidence of a more gen- 

 eral kind that Gulf of Maine salmon do not scatter 

 far as a rule is that they appear about the river 

 mouths in spring so soon after the ice goes out that 

 they cannot have come from any great distance. 



A few do stray as far as Cape Cod Bay in most 

 years; witness catches of one to 5 or 6 fish (10-55 

 pounds) in 14 out of 16 years by 8 traps, at North 

 Truro, Cape Cod, during the period 1935 to 1950, 

 in the months of May, June, July, September, and 

 November. 76 



A year comes from time to time when a con- 

 siderable number are taken off the coast of 

 Massachusetts. The most recently recorded in- 

 stance of this sort fell in 1937, when floating traps 

 along the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay 

 picked up 4,400 pounds of salmon. All of these 

 were taken close inshore. But the 1,600 or so 

 salmon (16,050 lb.) that were reported for Massa- 

 chusetts in 1928 (the big year next previous) 

 seemingly were farther out at sea, for all of them 

 either hooked on long lines (10,134 lb.), or were 

 taken in otter trawls. These must have come from 

 as far as the Penobscot, if not from the Bay of 

 Fundy, which is equally true of the salmon that 

 are caught around Marthas Vineyard from time 

 to time. 78 One, however, of about 10 pounds, 

 reported in the North River, Marshfield, in the 

 summer of 1938, and a few seen jumping in the 

 Parker River (also in Massachusetts) in the sum- 

 mer of 1951, may have been the product of 

 attempts to stock these streams. Occasional sal- 

 mon that have been taken along the New Jersey 



N 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. 

 " Information contributed by the Pond Village Cold Storage Co. 

 " In the spring of 1915 about 75 (including fish up to 35 lb.) were taken at 

 Gay Head and in the neighborhood of Woods Hole 



coast and off Delaware 77 may have been the 

 product of attempts to stock the Hudson. 



Salmon, also, of 25 to 50 pounds that are 

 sometimes caught in Minas Channel at the head 

 of the Bay of Fundy, must come from afar, as 

 Dr. Huntsman points out, 78 probably from the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, there being no run of fish 

 so heavy in any Bay of Fundy river or in any 

 Maine river. 



It is not astonishing that some salmon should 

 stray far afield in Gulf of Maine waters, for 

 marked salmon have been known to make much 

 longer journeys, elsewhere. Thus fish marked in 

 the southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence have 

 been recaught on the north shore of the Gulf; in 

 Newfoundland; and in the Strait of Belle Isle. 7 ' 

 One marked at Bonavista on the east coast of 

 Newfoundland was retaken 98 days later in the 

 Margaree River, Cape Breton Island, Nova 

 Scotia, 550 miles away 80 by the shortest possible 

 route. One marked in Minas Channel at the 

 head of the Bay of Fundy went out around Nova 

 Scotia to Chedabucto Bay on the northeast, near 

 the Gut of Canso, a journey of at least 440 miles. 81 

 Five, tagged in the Annapolis River system, were 

 recaught on the east coast of Newfoundland, a 

 minimum distance of 900 miles, while a sixth, 

 from the same lot, was taken at Ramah on the 

 outer coast of Labrador, more than 1,000 miles 

 still farther away to the northward. 82 This last 

 is the most spectacular case of wandering yet 

 reported for any Gulf of Maine or Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence salmon. 



What is chiefly interesting about the large 

 catches that are sometimes made off Massachu- 

 setts is their demonstration that so many fish may 

 occasionally wander so far afield. And this ap- 

 plies not only to large salmon but to smolts in 

 their first year at sea, for salmon so small that 

 they must have run down to salt water but a few 

 months previous have been taken in Cape Cod 

 Bay in October. 



It is not likely that these wandering salmon 

 return at all to their home rivers; probably they 



i» Smith (Bull. V. 9. Fish. Comm., vol. 14, 1896, p. 99) reports salmon 

 seined among some mackerel off Delaware in 1893. 



» Bull. 51. Biol. Board of Canada, 1936, p. 9. 



'• See Huntsman, Pub. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 8, 1932, p. 35, for summary 

 of these records. 



" Huntsman, Science, vol. 95, 1947, p. 381. 



« Huntsman, Ann. Rept. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada, (1947) 1948, p. 37. 



«• Huntsman, Science, vol. 85, 1937, p. 314; Pub. 8, Amer. Assoc. Adv. 

 Sci., 1939. p. 35. 



