242 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



South Channel, where the bottom is mostly 

 smooth (see regional summary of 1945 catches, 

 p. 242) ; that some are caught with hake off the 

 coast of Maine on broken or even muddy bottom; 

 and that we have trawled a few, on the Atlantis, 

 in depths greater than 78 fathoms off Cape Cod, 

 where the bottom is mostly a sticky sand. 



One striking accompaniment of the preference 

 of cusk for rough or stony grounds in moderately 

 deep water, is that many more are caught around 

 the peripheral belt of the Gulf, between, say, the 

 15-fathom and the 75-fathom contour lines, than are 

 on the off-shore rim formed by Nantucket Shoals, 

 Georges Bank, and Browns Bank. The one not- 

 able exception is that there are so few cusk, if 

 any, in the inner parts of the Bay of Fundy that 

 they are not mentioned in the fishery returns for 

 the Bay, except for a few thousand pounds taken 

 near its mouth on the Nova Scotian side. 



This regional contrast is illustrated by landings 

 by United States fishermen (1945) M and Canadian 

 fishermen (1944, 1946) combined, of between 

 215,000 and 250,000 pounds off western Nova 

 Scotia; " 1,000 to 15,000 88 pounds at the mouth 

 of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotian side; about 

 63,000 pounds off eastern Maine; about 333,000 

 pounds off central Maine; about 255,000 pounds 

 off western Maine; about 419,000 pounds off east- 

 ern Massachusetts; about 338,000 pounds from 

 the small grounds in west central part of the Gulf; 

 about 68,000 pounds from the South Channel; a 

 few hundred pounds only from Nantucket Shoals ; 

 about 25,000 pounds from the northwest part of 

 Georges Bank; none reported from the southwest- 

 ern part of Georges; about 17,000 pounds from the 

 eastern central and northeastern parts of Georges 

 Bank; and about 18,000 pounds from Browns 

 Bank. 



Following the cusk eastward and northward, we 

 find that considerable quantities are caught all 

 along the Nova Scotian Banks, from Browns to 

 Banquereau and to the Canso grounds off Cape 

 Breton Island (catch, in 1946, about 542,000 

 pounds by United States and Canadian vessels 



combined). Cusk were also reported from the 

 Newfoundland Banks many years ago by Goode, 89 

 but there cannot be many of them there, for they 

 are not included among the fishes reported thence 

 from cruises of the Newfoundland Fishery Re- 

 search Commission. 90 And the only report we 

 have found of cusk. anywhere in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence is at Cheticamp, on the Cape Breton 

 shore. 91 In fact, the only definite record we have 

 found of cusk on the American coast farther north 

 than Cabot Strait is of one that was caught in the 

 Strait of Belle Isle at 80 fathoms many years ago. 92 

 And while the cusk has been credited repeatedly to 

 Greenland, it is a rare stray there from the south, 

 only 7 specimens having been reported there dur- 

 ing the period 1936^6, 5 of them on the west 

 coast, 2 on the east. 93 



Westward from Cape Cod, the cusk is said to 

 have been "not uncommon" formerly in Vineyard 

 Sound, but it is so rare there now (if it ever occurs 

 there) that we have not heard of one caught any- 

 where in the Woods Hole region of late years. 

 But one was caught off Newport, Rhode Island, 

 in November 1898, 94 and two were reported from 

 Cape May, New Jersey, many years ago. 96 



Importance. — The cusk is a good food fish and 

 there is a ready market for all that are brought 

 in. The landings from the Gulf of Maine by 

 United States fishermen ranged between about 

 1,600,000 pounds and about 2,200,000 pounds 

 for the years 1945-47; between about 100,000 

 pounds and about 200,000 pounds by Canadian 

 fishermen for 1944 and 1946, which contrasts 

 with 2 to 7 million pounds yearly by United States 

 fishermen alone for the few years that pre- 

 ceded the publication of the first edition of this 

 book (in 1925). We attribute this decrease to 

 the evolution that has taken place in the fishery 

 from long lining to otter trawling chiefly, and to the 



M Most recent year for which landings have been published by counties, 

 for Maine and Massachusetts, In addition to the landings at Portland, 

 Gloucester, Boston, and New Bedford. 



•' Off western Nova Scotia, by United States fishermen, 1945, about 108,000 

 pounds; Yarmouth County landings, Nova Scotia, about 140,500 pounds in 

 1944, about 106,000 pounds in 1946. 



« 1944, 15,000 pounds; 1946, 700 pounds. 



» Fish. Ind. U. S., Sect. 1, 1884, p. 232. 



*> Frost (Service Bull. 8, Newfoundland Dept. Nat. Resources, 1938, p. 29) 

 states that there is no definite record of cusk on the Newfoundland fishing 

 grounds. 



•i Recorded by Comlsh (Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1918-1920) 1921, p. 114) 

 from fishermen's reports. W. R. Martin of the Fisheries Research Board 

 of Canada, writes us that any fisheries reports of cusk for the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence actually refer to hake. 



» Weitz, Proceedings, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 10, 1866, p. 274; Packard, 

 Labrador Coast, 1891, p. 819. 



•> For further details and discussion of the status of the cusk as a Greenland 

 fish, see Jensen (Spolia Zool., Mus. Haunlensis, Copenhagen, vol. 11, 1948, 

 p. 175). 



« Tracy, 40 Ann. Rept. Commiss. Inland Fish. Rhode Island, 1910, p. 159. 



•' Abbott, Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 819. 



