FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



263 



Welsh's observations suggest that this takes place, 

 in our Gulf, when the little fish are about 1% to 

 1% inches long, with their metamorphosis already 

 complete, their body scaly, and their eyed side 

 densely pigmented. But there is wide variation 

 in this respect. And European authors report 

 that the fry may take to the bottom even before 

 the left eye has completed its migration around 

 the head. 



The period occupied in larval growth and in 

 metamorphosis varies with temperature. Proba- 

 bly it covers three to four months in the Gulf of 

 Maine, where we have taken the pelagic larvae as 

 early in the season as May 26 and as late as 

 August 2. 



The little fish grow to a length of 2 to 3 inches by 

 their first winter, with their exact size then de- 

 pending upon how early in the season they are 

 hatched, and probably on the temperature in 

 which they live. And they average about 3 

 inches long 89 when they are one year old. Thus it 

 may be assumed that bottom stages 2% to 3% 

 inches (69-80 mm.) long that we have trawled 

 off Cape Cod, on May 1, were about one year old; 

 others of 3% to 4% inches (85-118 mm.) that we 

 have trawled in July and August off Mount 

 Desert, in the deep gully to the westward of Jef- 

 freys Ledge, on Cashes Ledge, and on the edge of 

 Stellwagen Bank were between 1% and 1% years 

 old; and that those of 8 to 10 inches were 2% to 2% 

 years old. Subsequent growth is more rapid in 

 higher temperatures than in lower, throughout the 

 temperature range favorable to this particular 

 flatfish. Huntsman, 87 for example, has found 

 that it takes only 3 to 5 years for dabs to grow to a 

 length of 12 inches in Passamaquoddy Bay, where 

 the bottom water at 15 to 18 fathoms warms to 

 about 49° to 51° F. in August, but that it requires 

 4 to 6 years in the open Bay of Fundy, where the 

 bottom temperature in summer is somewhat 

 lower (45°-48°) ; 6 to 9 years in the cooler water 

 (about 38°) of Chedabucto Bay, eastern Nova 

 Scotia; and upwards of 8 years in the still lower 

 temperatures (colder than 35°) of the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence. 



On this basis, dabs living on the shoaler parts of 

 Georges Bank, and as shoal as 15 fathoms or so in 

 coastwise waters from Cape Cod to Cape Eliza- 



beth, probably grow about as fast as the Passa- 

 maquoddy Bay fish, i. e., they may reach a length 

 of 15 inches in 5 years or even sooner, gaining 

 something like 4 ounces in weight yearly. Those 

 in the eastern side of the open Gulf of Maine may 

 be expected to grow about as fast as those in the 

 Bay of Fundy, but somewhat more slowly there if 

 they are living as deep as 50 fathoms, though not 

 so slowly as in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Some 

 individuals may become sexually mature when 

 only 6 inches long, probably all of them do so by 

 their third year; and they are known to live to an 

 age of 24-30 years, perhaps longer, at least in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



In general, females grow faster than males. 



Huntsman has also found, in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, that a majority of the fish of 3 years 

 and younger were males, but that females out- 

 numbered the males among the older fish, while 

 all of those 14 years old and older that he saw were 

 females. We have no explanation to offer for 

 this (apparently) higher mortality rate for the 

 males than for the females among the older fish. 



General range. — This is a very common fish on 

 both sides of the North Atlantic, where its range 

 parallels that of the cod, except that it does not 

 extend as far south and west along the American 

 seaboard. It is found in abundance along the 

 outer coast of Labrador, southward from Hamilton 

 Inlet, where (Frost M writes) they are so abundant 

 locally that a 5-minute haul with a torn trawl 

 yielded 50 (at lat. about 54°) in Newfoundland 

 waters in general; on the Grand Banks, including 

 the eastern edge; 89 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as a 

 whole, and thence westward and southward to 

 Cape Cod, from close inshore out to the 100- 

 fathom contour. Westward from Cape Cod, a 

 few are caught in the Woods Hole region; off 

 Marthas Vineyard; and off Narragansett Bay 

 which marks their western limit in general. The 

 most southerly and westerly record with which we 

 are acquainted is of one 15M inches long that was 

 caught off Montauk Point, N. Y. ( in 112 fathoms, 

 February 6, 1930. 90 



» Flimtsman, Bull. Biol. Board Canada, No. 1, 1918. 

 ° Bull. Biol. Board Canada, No. 1, 1918, p. 28. 



91 Res. Bull. 4, Newfoundland Dept. Nat. Resources, 1938, p. 8. R. H. 

 Backus informs us also that the Blue Dolphin collected them at various local- 

 ities as far north as the northern shore of Hamilton Inlet Oat. 54°3T/ N.), but 

 did not take any farther north, in spite of extensive collecting. 



* Reported in abundance down the eastern edge of the Grand Banks, in the 

 20th Rept. Dept. Fish. Canada (1949-1950) 1951, p. 36. 



•• We find no other credible records from New York or from New Jersey, 

 those mentioned by DeKay being market fish which might have oome from 

 anywhere to the eastward. 



