180 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



year, some of them still longer. Thus our ex- 

 perimental trawlings, in August 1936, yielded 

 large numbers of the 1-year-olds at 70 to 90 

 fathoms in the deep basins off Cape Cod and 

 west of Jefferys Ledge; also off Mount Desert. 4 ' 

 And nearly all of the silver hake that come close 

 enough inshore to enter the traps in the south- 

 western part of the Gulf, or to strand on the 

 beaches there, are good sized individuals of 9 

 inches aDd larger. In fact, the only instance 

 that has come to our notice of any considerable 

 inshore catch of one-year-old fish (about 6 to 8 

 inches long) in the Cape Cod Bay region was 

 near Provincetown, August 1939, when about 

 1,900 of them were taken during a 14-day period. 60 

 Huntsman, however, reports all sizes near shore 

 from yearlings on, in the Passamaquoddy region 

 to the northeast, and in the neighboring parts 

 of the Bay of Fundy. 



The silver hake 3 years old and older, that 

 provide the commercial catches, sometimes ap- 

 pear in the Cape Cod Bay-northern Massachusetts 

 region as early as the last week in March, regularly 

 by May. Welsh saw some fish, for example, in 

 Ipswich Bay in March and April in 1913 (a fairly 

 representative season), considerable numbers in 

 May, aod an abundance in June. And this may 

 be taken as typical for the whole coast line of 

 the Gulf south of Portland; also for Georges 

 Bank, where the first silver hake were taken by 

 the otter trawlers from April 27 to 29 in 1913, 

 and on almost every trip thereafter. We have 

 not beeD able to learn how early silver hake ap- 

 pear on the coast of Maine east of Portland, 

 or off western Nova Scotia, where it is only 

 within the past few years that any attention has 

 been paid them. 



Around Cape Cod Bay, silver hake are usually 

 the most plentiful in June ; disappear more or less 

 during August and September; and reappear in 

 numbers in October, though far fewer then than 

 in June, as is illustrated by the average monthly 

 catches made by a set of eight traps at North 

 Truro, for the years 1946-1947 and 1950: 51 June, 

 185,200 pounds; July, 36,700 pounds; August, 

 1,206 pounds; September, 1,780 pounds; and 

 October, 10,852 pounds. 



" For further details, see Blgelow and Schroeder, Biol. Bull. vol. 76, 1939, 

 pp. 308, 319-320, fig. 8. 



" Information supplied by William A. Ellison, Jr. 



"Information supplied by the Pond Village Cold Storage Co., North 

 Truro, Mass. 



Whether their withdrawal thence in summer is a 

 matter of food, or whether they move deeper to 

 escape the heat of summer is a question for the 

 future. Farther offshore in the western side of 

 the Gulf, and to the northward, silver hake are 

 about as plentiful in July and August as they are 

 in June, as indicated by the vessel landings at 

 Boston and Gloucester; somewhat less so in Sep- 

 tember and October. And what little information 

 we have suggests that summer is the season of 

 greatest plenty for them in the Bay of Fimdy 

 region, though there are far fewer of them there. 



The great majority of the silver hake vanish 

 from the inshore waters of the Gulf during the late 

 autumn, November seeing the last of them in 

 Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays, according both 

 to our own observations and to general report. 

 The latest catches made on Georges Bank during 

 the experimental trawlings of 1913 were on De- 

 cember 3 and 12. And though a few are brought 

 in from the grounds off Massachusetts and Cape 

 Cod during January, February, and March, the 

 catches average less than K70 as great for those 

 months as for the period May through October, 

 as illustrated by the monthly landings by trawlers 

 at Boston and Gloucester for 1947: M 



1,400 

 2, 255 

 1, 700 

 7, 540 



May.. _ 860,000 



June 1, 158,000 



January.. 

 February. 



March 



April 



July 4,444,000 



August 4, 879, 000 



September 1,974,000 



October.. 2,381,000 



November 438, 000 



December 207, 000 



It is probable that the fish of the year and those 

 that are only 1 year old winter in the deeper de- 

 pressions near where they first took to the bottom. 

 It is unlikely that fish as small fish as those we 

 have trawled in these situations, in August, can 

 travel far. 



The wintering ground of the Gulf of Maine pop- 

 ulation of larger silver hake is not known. Many of 

 them may winter near the sea floor in the deep open 

 troughs of the Gulf, 63 where the bottom water at 

 75 to 100 fathoms and deeper continues warmer 

 than 39° F. (4° C.) even at the coldest time of 

 year. Evidence in this direction is that it is only 

 deeper than 60 fathoms that good April catches 

 have been reported on Georges Bank (p. 180). It 

 is also possible that part of them move out to 

 the shelf off southern New England to winter, or 



u Pounds of round fish and dressed fish combined. 



" Practically no trawling is done m winter in the deepest parts of the Gulf. 



