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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



globule, and (unlike those of its larger relative) 

 they sink to the bottom where they stick together 

 in masses, or to seaweeds, stones, or any available 

 support. Incubation occupies about 24 days at an 

 average temperature of 43°; 30 days at 40°. The 

 larvae are not only somewhat larger (5 mm.) at 

 hatching than those of the cod, but are farther ad- 

 vanced in development, the mouth being formed. 

 And they differ from all other Gulf of Maine ga- 

 doids at a corresponding stage by the presence of 

 the oil globule and by the fact that the vent opens 

 at the margin of the ventral fin fold and not at its 

 base at one side. 14 Although great numbers of 

 tomcod have been hatched artificially by the State 

 of New York, its later larval stages have not been 

 described, nor have we seen them ourselves. The 

 fry, which are said to remain through their first 

 summer in the waters where they are hatched, 

 grow to a length of 2^-3 inches by the following 

 autumn. But nothing is known of the rate of 

 growth of older fish. 



General range. — North American coastal waters 

 from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and northern New- 

 foundland to Virginia, running up into fresh 

 water. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The tomcod is 

 locally common around the entire coastline of the 

 Gulf. It is reported at Pubnico and in St. Mary Bay, 

 for example, on the west coast of Nova Scotia ; at 

 various localities on both shores of theBay of Fundy 

 (e. g., Annapolis Basin and River, Minas Basin, 

 St. John Harbor, and the St. Andrews region) ; at 

 Eastport; from almost every river mouth along 

 the Maine coast; in the vicinity of Boothbay 

 Harbor; at sundry stations in Casco Bay; and in 

 Portland Harbor in Maine. And it is to be found 

 in practically every estuary around the Massa- 

 chusetts Bay region. 



Tomcod are caught from docks and bridges 

 and in salt creeks in mid-summer as well as in 

 winter. Tomcod are in the inner parts of Dux- 

 bury bay, for example, in midsummer; there are 

 also plenty of them in a certain salt marsh creek 

 at Cohasset at all seasons; and this applies to 

 many similar locations all up and down the coast, 

 including the Bay of Fundy, where tomcod are 

 in and near the estuaries the year round, as 

 Huntsman " remarks. 



Westward and southward from Cape Cod, the 

 tomcod is plentiful in suitable situations all along 

 the coast to New Jersey, where Abbott M described 

 them many years ago as a "very common" little 

 fish, and we have often caught them while fishing 

 from docks in lower New York Harbor. 



In the opposite direction, they are common 

 along the outer shores of Nova Scotia. They 

 are plentiful enough around the shores of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence for catches of 684,000 pounds 

 to be reported from the New Brunswick coastline 

 of the Gulf in 1947, 20,400 pounds from the 

 southern shore of the estuary of the St. Lawrence 

 River, 152,900 pounds from the north shore of the 

 estuary and Gulf, while Jeffers " reports them as 

 taken in considerable numbers through the ice in 

 winter, on the Newfoundland side of the Strait of 

 Belle Isle. And they are to be expected along the 

 southern and eastern coasts of Newfoundland, 

 though they seem not to have been reported there 

 as yet. 



Importance. — The tomcod is a delicious little 

 fish. But it seems to have been more highly con- 

 sidered a century ago, when between 5,000 and 

 10,000 pounds were caught annually in the Charles 

 River tributary to Boston Harbor; today, it is 

 unusual to see any for sale in a Massachusetts 

 fish market. And, in any case, tomcod are not 

 plentiful enough anywhere around our Gulf to 

 support a regular commercial fishery of any mag- 

 nitude. In 1929 the reported catch was about 

 6,000 pounds for Massachusetts, about 16,500 

 pounds for Maine, and about 6,100 pounds for the 

 Canadian shores of the Gulf. In 1942, 18 27,500 

 pounds were reported for Maine, none for Massa- 

 chusetts, about 10,000 pounds for theNova Scotian 

 shore of the Bay of Fundy. Since that time a few 

 thousand pounds have been reported yearly from 

 the Nova Scotia shores of the open Gulf and of the 

 Bay of Fundy; IB none at all, however, from its 

 New Brunswick shore. 



Most of the tomcod marketed in Maine (also 

 most of those formerly marketed in New Bruns- 

 wick) are taken in bag nets or in pocket nets set 



" Ryder (Rept. U. 8. Comm. Fish., (188S) 1887, p. 623, pi. 13, fig. 67) de- 

 scribes and pictures the newly hatched larva of the tomcod. 

 " Contrib. Canadian Biol., (1921) 1922, p. 67. 



» Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 818. 



•» Contrib. Canadian Biol., N. Ser., vol. 7, No. 16 (Ser. A, general, No. 

 13). 1932, p. 7. 



'• Most recent year when tomcod were mentioned In the United States 

 catch statistics for the Oulf of Maine coast. 



» 35,000 pounds of tomcod were reported for Dlgby County in 1944, bul 

 this amount Is so much larger than for preceding years, or for 1948, as to suggesi 

 some error. 



