FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



137 



different parts of the coast of the Gulf, depending 

 on the summer temperature of the water and 

 perhaps on the food supply. Most of them desert 

 the harbors and estuaries of the Massachusetts 

 Bay region and along the southern coast of Maine 

 during the warmest season. But it is probable 

 that they move out only far enough to find cooler 

 water at a slightly greater depth, and a few may 

 be found in harbors through the summer. Smelt, 

 for instance, are caught then in Cohasset Harbor 

 in some years, but not in others ; and east of Penob- 

 scot Bay, where the surface temperature does not 

 rise so high as off Massachusetts, smelt are to 

 be found in the harbors, bays, and river mouths 

 all summer, and are sometimes taken in numbers 

 then in the weirs. 12 



Adult smelt gather in harbors and brackish 

 estuaries early in autumn, where smelt fishing 

 with hook and line is in full swing by October. 

 The schools then tend to move into the smaller 

 harbors on the flood tide, and out again on the 

 ebb, especially if the tidal current is strong, as it 

 is in Cohasset, a locality with which we are famil- 

 iar. But some smelt remain over the ebb in the 

 deeper basins. And some of them have run as 

 far as the head of tide by the time the first ice 

 forms in December. Most of them winter be- 

 tween the harbor mouths and the brackish water 

 farther up; the maturing fish commence their 

 spawning migration into fresh water as early in 

 the spring as the ice goes out of the streams and 

 the water warms to the required degree. 



Temperature observations by the Massachusetts 

 Commission show that the first smelt appear on 

 the spawning beds in Weir Eiver, a stream empty- 

 ing into Boston Harbor, when the temperature of 

 the water rises to about 40-42 . 13 This may take 

 place as early as the first week in March or as 

 late as the last, about Massachusetts Bay, depend- 

 ing on the forwardness of the season and on the 

 particular stream. The chief production of eggs 

 takes place in temperatures of 50-57°, and spawn- 

 ing is completed in Massachusetts waters by about 

 the 10th or 15th of May, year in and year out. 

 East of Portland, smelt seldom commence to run 

 before April, and continue through May. In the 

 colder streams on the southern shores of the Gulf 



of St. Lawrence they do not spawn until June. 

 On the other hand, they may commence spawn- 

 ing as early as February along the southern New 

 England coast west of Cape Cod. 



As a rule smelt do not journey far upstream; 

 many, indeed, go only a few hundred yards above 

 tidewater, whether the stream be small or large. 

 Thus Dr. Huntsman informs us that the smelt that 

 enter the estuary of the Stewiacke River, Nova 

 Scotia (a tributary of the lower Shubenacadie, 

 near the head of the Bay of Fundy) spawn only 

 in the tidal part. And some spawn in slightly 

 brackish water in certain ponds back of barrier 

 beaches (e. g., Straits Pond, Cohasset, Mass.). 

 But flooding with salt water, which sometimes 

 happens, kills the eggs. 



The adult smelts return to salt water immedi- 

 ately after spawning to spend the summer either 

 in the estuary into which the stream in which 

 they spawn empties or in the sea close by. On 

 the Massachusetts coast north of Cape Cod all 

 the spent fish have left fresh water by the middle 

 of May, earlier in some years. On the Maine 

 coast, too, a good proportion of the spent fish are 

 in salt water by the first weeks in May; thus we 

 have seen a bushel of large smelt taken in a weir 

 at Cutler (near the mouth of the Grand Manan 

 Channel) as early as May 4. 



The eggs average about 1.2 mm. (0.05-inch) in 

 diameter and they sink to the bottom, where 

 they stick in clusters to pebbles, to each other, or 

 to any stick, root, grass, or water weed they chance 

 to touch. According to the Manual of Fish 

 Culture a female weighing as little as 2 ounces 

 will produce between 40,000 and 50,000 eggs; 14 

 The eggs of the closely allied European smelt 

 {Osmerus eperlanus) hatch in 8 to 27 days, accord- 

 ing to temperature, and the incubation period of 

 the American fish is the same, probably, for smelt 

 eggs are reported as hatching in 13 days at the 

 Palmer (Mass.) hatchery. 



"Atkins (Fish. Ind. U. 8., sect. 5, vol. 1, 1887, pp. 690-693) gives much 

 Information on the smelt In Maine. 



» Kendall (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 42, 1927, pp. 231-233) summarizes 

 these observations and elves additional information for streams on tho coast 

 of Maine. 



Figure 58. — Smelt larva, 26 mm. 



The smelt has proved a favorable fish for 

 artificial hatching and large numbers of fry are so 

 produced yearly in Massachusetts, the eggs being 



» Kept. U. S. Fish Comm., 1897, p. 188. 



