FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



237 



rocklings are, on the other side of the Atlantic. 

 Nothing is known of their subsequent rate of 

 growth. 



General range. — Both sides of the North Atlantic. 

 The American range is from the northern part of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the northeastern 

 coast of Newfoundland (perhaps even farther 

 north) to Narragansett Bay and Long Island 

 Sound in coastal waters, and to the latitude of 

 Cape Fear (N. C.) in deep water along the con- 

 tinental slope. 68 The Arctic three-bearded rock- 

 ling (Gaidropsarus ensis Reinhardt), otherwise 

 known only from Greenland, has been trawled on 

 the lower part of the continental slope in the 

 offings of southeastern Nova Scotia, of Cape Cod, 

 of Martha's Vineyard, of New York and of New 

 Jersey at depths of 858 to 1106 fathoms, by the 

 Fish Hawk and Albatross I, but this is not shoal 

 enough to bring it within our limits. 69 



There are several other species of rockling in 

 north European waters, but none of them have 

 been recorded from our side of the Atlantic. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The little 

 rockling is of no commercial value, and it seldom 

 comes up into very shallow water where it would 

 force itself on the notice of seaside visitors. But 

 it is a common bottom fish in the deeper parts of 

 Massachusetts Bay as Goode and Bean 70 remarked 

 long ago, while our experience, corroborated by 

 Huntsman for the Bay of Fundy, is that this ap- 

 plies to the entire Gulf. Definite Gulf of Maine 

 records for adult rocklings are from St. Mary 

 Bay (Nova Scotia) ; various localities in the Bay 

 of Fundy including Passamaquoddy Bay; Jones- 

 port; off Mount Desert; off Pemaquid; near 

 Seguin Island; mouth of Casco Bay; the deep 

 gully to the westward of Jeffreys Ledge; Ipswich 

 Bay; Gloucester; Nahant; various stations in the 

 deeper parts of Massachusetts Bay; Prov- 

 incetown; the deep open basins of the 

 Gulf; 71 and Georges Bank. And we have taken 

 its young fry rather frequently in our tow nets 

 in season. 



■ A specimen trawled by the Albatross 12 in 12 fathoms off the mouth of 

 Chesapeake Bay on February 10, 1930, is the only one recorded in shallow 

 water so far southward. 



» Goode and Bean (Smithsonian Contrib. Knowl., vol. 30, 1895, p. 381) 

 give a list of these localities. For a recent account of G. ensis, with illus- 

 trations, and list of Greenland localities, see Jensen, Spolia Zool., Mus. 

 Hauniensis, Copenhagen, vol. 9, 1948, p. 167, pi. 4, fig. a. 



'• Bull. Essei Inst., vol. 11, 1879, p. 9. 



" The Atlantis trawled It both In the Jeffrey bowl, and In the open basin 

 of the Gulf, August 1936; and we trawled It In the central basin In July 1931. 



Huntsman 72 and Battle ™ have found the eggs 

 of this rockling in Passamaquoddy Bay through- 

 out the summer, commencing in May and most 

 abundantly at the time the bottom water warms 

 to 9°. or 10° C. And its breeding season probably 

 continues from spring to early autumn in the 

 western Atlantic as it does in the eastern, 74 for 

 Dannevig 75 (1919) records rockling eggs (prob- 

 ably this species) as early as the end of May near 

 Halifax, while we have taken rockling larvae only 

 5.5 mm. long as late as September and October in 

 our tow nets in Massachusetts Bay. 



It is probable that the rockling spawns all 

 around the peripheral belt of the Gulf, with 

 Massachusetts Bay as an important nursery, 

 to judge from our repeated captures of its larvae 

 there. And we have taken the pelagic fry in 

 our tow nets at the various localities marked on 

 the accompanying chart (fig. 109) from the first 

 week in July until October; seldom, however, 

 more than half a dozen in any one haul (the 

 largest catch was 18 specimens). Huntsman, 

 similarly, describes the fry as common in the center 

 of the Bay of Fundy, and they have been taken in 

 the tow nets at Woods Hole in April. But we 

 have taken neither the eggs, the larvae, nor the 

 pelagic fry in any of our tow nettings in the central 

 parts of the Gulf, which perhaps justifies the 

 assumption that the spawning grounds of the 

 rockling within our Gulf are limited mostly to 

 depths less than 75 fathoms, though it may 

 spawn much deeper than that on the continental 

 slope. 



To the west of Cape Cod, the rockling is now 

 known to occur in coastal waters as far as Nar- 

 ragansett Bay, and in Long Island Sound, where 

 it was found generally in 5 K to 9 fathoms, and 

 abundantly at 21 fathoms by the Fish Hawk 

 in the summer of 1914. 76 And it has been trawled 

 by the Fish Hawk and by the Albatross I at many 

 stations in deeper water offshore along the shelf 

 and slope, southward to the offing of Cape Hat- 

 teras Oat. 35° 40' N.). 77 



n Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1921) 1922, p. 69. 



>» Contrib. Canadian Biol., Fish., N. Ser., vol. 6, No. 6, 1930, p. 13 [1191- 

 » It spawns from the end of January until August In the Baltic. 

 « Canadian Fisheries Erped., (1914-1915) 1919, p. 53, table 1C 

 « Nichols and Breder, Zoologica, N. Y. Zool. Soc, vol. 9, 1927, p. 172. 

 " For list of early stations, see Goode and Bean (Smithsonian Contrib. 

 Knowl., vol. 30, 1895, pp. 384-385). They also report a specimen apparently 

 of this species from the offing of Cape Fear, N. C Oat. 34° 01' N., long. 76° 

 11' W.). But It was In poor condition, hence of doubtful Identity. 



