FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



179 



*&T °° 



/ .• 



/ : 



/ : 



/ .• 



70° 60° 



Figure 85. — Localities where eggs (#), and larvae (O) of silver hake, or both (O) have been taken. 



by the Canadian Fisheries Expedition, 46 with the 

 presence of ripe fish as well as of spent, in depths as 

 great as 150 fathoms and more off southern New 

 England 47 proves that it spawns over deep water 

 also. The European silver hake usually spawns 

 in 50 to 100 fathoms. 



All our records for the free-drifting larvae of 

 the silver hake in the Gulf, unlike those for its 

 eggs, have been in the southwestern part. And we 

 have towed along the coast of Maine so often in 

 August, September, and October (when the larvae 

 spawned from June to August might have been 

 expected) that our failure to find them east of 

 Cape Elizabeth seems sufficient evidence that 

 they actually are limited, in their regular occur- 

 rence, to the southwestern part of the Gulf 

 (they parallel the pelagic stages of the cod, the 

 haddock, and the flatfishes in this) and to the 

 waters westward from Cape Cod. Dannevig, 

 too, has called attention to the absence of larvae 

 of the silver hake in Nova Scotia waters, con- 



trasted with the presence of their eggs there. 48 

 One possible explanation for this contrast 

 between larvae and eggs is that it may mirror the 

 relative percentage of eggs that hatch in the 

 regions in question. A more likely explanation 

 we think, when taken with other similar facts 

 of distribution, is that it results from a peripheral 

 drift around the shores of the Gulf from north- 

 east to southwest, in which the eggs take part 

 first and then the resultant larvae. This type of 

 circulation, in fact, has been established so well 

 for our Gulf by hydrographic evidence, that some 

 such involuntary migration is inevitable, not only 

 for various buoyant fish eggs and larvae that are 

 produced near the coast line, but likewise for the 

 drifting communities of invertebrates, and of 

 plants. 



It is now known that large numbers of the silver 

 hake that descend to the deeper water layers in 

 the southwestern part of the Gulf during their 

 first autumn remain there during the following 



" Dannevig, Canadian Fish. Exped., (1914-15) 1919, p. 28. 

 1 Ooode, Fish. Ind. U. 8., Sect. 1, 1884, p. 242. 



<• Canad. Fish. Eiped. (1914-1916) 1919, p. 28. 



