FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



221 



we think it likely that the few pollock that are 

 caught within the Gulf of St. Lawrence wander 

 in via the Gut of Canso. On the other hand, 

 pollock are seldom caught west of Rhode Island 

 after June, 21 and it is chiefly as cold season visitors 

 that they appear off the coasts of Connecticut, 

 New York, or New Jersey; the commercial catches 

 reported thence are made mostly in winter and in 

 early spring. 



Importance. — At the time the first edition of 

 this book appeared (1925) our Gulf was yielding 

 about 35 million to 40 million pounds yearly. In 

 1946, most recent year for which we have seen the 

 Canadian catch statistics as well as those for the 

 United States, the total catch for the Gulf was 

 close to 48 million pounds, 22 say 5 million to 

 7 million fish. 



A quarter of a century ago, the gill net was 

 regarded as the most effective apparatus for 

 catching pollock; hand and long lines ranking 

 next; otter trawls yielding only a few, 23 while 

 schools that were seen at the surface were often 

 seined, especially the smaller sizes. But the 

 relative proportions have been reversed with the 

 great development of the otter trawl fishery. 

 In 1946, for example, a representative year, a 

 little less than % of the pollock landed from the 

 Gulf of Maine by United States fishermen were 



caught in otter trawls; a little less than }i in gill 

 nets; with hand and long lines, traps of one sort 

 or another, and purse seines accounting for the 

 remainder in the order named. 2 * 



Some of our readers will be more interested 

 in the fact that pollock will take an artificial 

 lure and put up a strong resistance. Small ones 

 up to 4 or 5 pounds will take a bright artificial 

 fly freely (silver body with white wings of hackle 

 or hair is good, especially with a touch of red). 

 We have caught many fly casting from the rocks 

 in autumn when smallish pollock are inshore after 

 smelt or other small fish. And a pollock rises so 

 fiercely to the fly and makes so long and strong a 

 run when it is hooked that a small one gives 

 fully as good sport as a trout caught on a light 

 fly rod; a medium-sized pollock provides nearly 

 as good sport as a salmon of equal weight. When 

 the larger pollock are schooling at the surface 

 near shore in May and June, many of them are 

 taken by anglers trolling with spoons or with 

 feather lures of one kind or another, from party 

 boats out of Plymouth, Gloucester, Ipswich, 

 Newburyport, Hampton, York, Casco Bay, and 

 various other places along our coasts; also off 

 Gay Head, Marthas Vineyard, and still farther 

 to the westward. And pollock of all sizes bite 

 eagerly on clams, minnows, or on bait of cut fish. 



WHITE HAKE AND SQUIRREL HAKE 



We are forced to discuss these two hakes to- 

 gether, for they are so hard to tell apart that they 

 are often confused, while they agree so closely 

 in habits and distribution that what is said of 

 one applies equally to the other, except as noted 

 below. 



White hake Urophycis tenuis (Mitchill) 1815 26 



Boston hake; Black hake; Mud hake; Hake; 

 Ling 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2555. 



Description. — Although the hakes of the genus 

 Urophycis (true hakes in general parlance on this 



31 Two pollock tagged on Nantucked Shoals in June and October were 

 caught off Block Island in the following May and July respectively. 



23 47,670,776 pounds, plus an indeterminate amount for Shelburne County, 

 Nova Scotia, that may have been caught on the Gulf of Maine side of Cape 

 Sable. 



» Bigelow and Welsh, Bull. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, vol. 40, Pt. 1, 1925, 

 p. 406. 



11 No statistics are available as to what proportions of the Canadian catch 

 In the Gulf are made with the different kinds of gear. 



" The European hake is a Merlucciut (p. 177). 



side of the Atlantic) are close relatives of the cod 

 and of the haddock, they are not at all codlike 

 in appearance, being more slender and softer- 

 bodied fish, tapering backward from the shoulders 

 to a slim caudal peduncle and to a small weak 

 tail, with much larger eyes than the cod but with 

 smaller chin barbels. Furthermore, they have 

 only two dorsal fins, the second much longer 

 than the first, and only one anal fin instead of 

 the three dorsals and the two anals of the pollock, 

 cod, and haddock. The ventral fins are long, 

 narrow, and feelerlike. 



The body of the white hake is rounded in front 

 of the vent, flattened sidewise behind the vent, 

 and is about five and one-half times as long as it 

 is deep. The mouth is so large that it gapes 

 back to below the eyes, the upper jaw projects 

 beyond the lower, and the chin bears a small 

 barbel. The first dorsal fin (9 to 10 rays) orig- 

 inates close behind the pectorals, and is shorter 



