FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



269 



This is a predaceous fish, like the halibut, feeding 

 largely on smaller fish of various sorts, on squids, 

 crabs, shrimps, and other crustaceans; on small 

 shelled mollusks; on worms, and on sand dollars. 

 It is very fierce and active in pursuit of prey, often 

 following schools of small fish right up to the sur- 

 face, to jump clear of the water in its dashes, 

 actions very different from those of the sluggish 

 dab and winter flounder. 



Little is known of its breeding habits. The fact 

 that nearly ripe females have been taken in Octo- 

 ber in Chesapeake Bay, in November and Febru- 

 ary at Beaufort, N. C, and as late as April 15, at 

 75 fathoms off Nantucket, 9 whereas Beaufort fish 

 taken in March and April appeared to be spent, 

 show that it is a late autumn, winter, and early 

 spring spawner. 10 This implies that the flukes 

 that spawn in the northern part of their range do 

 so well offshore, and this may also be true of them 

 in the southern part of their range, for fluke that 

 were kept in aquaria at Beaufort through the 

 winter failed to spawn. 



The eggs of the summer flounder laid naturally 

 have not been described yet. But it is likely 

 that they are buoyant like those of the four-spotted 

 flounder (p. 271). And their future : 'lefthanded- 

 ness" and large mouths are foreshadowed at an 

 early stage in the development of the larvae. 

 Larvae either of the fluke, or of a form (P. albiguttus 

 Jordan and Gilbert, 1882), so closely allied that it 

 may prove a race of that species, resemble cor- 

 responding stages of the four-spotted flounder in 

 their deep outlines and large heads, but the pig- 

 mentation on the rear part of their body is less 

 dense. At a length of 16 mm. the right eye has 

 nearly completed its migration, and the outlines 

 of young fry 26 mm. long approach those of the 

 adult. 11 



Young fry taken in Chesapeake Bay, had in- 

 creased in length from about 0.9-2.4 inches long in 

 May and June, to 3-5 inches in the last week of 

 July; were 4.7-7.1 inches by December and 

 January when one year old or a little less; about 

 8-10 inches long in the following October, when 

 they were a little short of two years old ; and they 



» Trawled by the Eugene H, Capt. Henry Klimm, in 1951. 



10 We dare not draw any conclusions as to spawning season from Hilde- 

 brand and Cable's table (Bull. U. S. Bur. of Fisheries, vol. 46, p. 470, table 

 12) of the seasonal distribution of young fry of different sizes because two 

 species of flounders are included there. 



11 Our account of the young stages is based chiefly on Hildebrand and 

 Cable's description (Bull. U. S. Bur. of Fisheries, vol. 46, pp. 469-475), from 

 Beaufort, N. C. 



measured 10% to 11 inches by their second May; 

 i. e., when a little more than 2 years of age. The 

 subsequent rate of growth has not been traced, so 

 far as we know. 



General range. — Continental waters of the east- 

 ern United States, from Maine to South Carolina, 

 possibly to Florida, 12 chiefly south of Cape Cod. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This is the 

 most important flatfish commercially to the west 

 and south of Rhode Island, and the one most 

 sought after by sportsmen there. It is also 

 plentiful offshore eastward to Nantucket Shoals 

 and to the western part of the so-called South 

 Channel, whence about 531,000 pounds were 

 landed in 1947 (most recent year for which infor- 

 mation is at hand). Trawlers also pick up a few 

 on the southwest part of Georges Bank (about 

 6,000 pounds in 1947), as well as a fish here and 

 there on other parts of the bank. 13 But there is no 

 reason to suppose that fluke ever stray eastward 

 and northward as far as Brown's Bank, or to outer 

 Nova Scotian waters. 



Coastwise, the angle of Cape Cod is the northern 

 boundary to the regular range of the fluke in any 

 great abundance. A number are caught each 

 summer in Pleasant Bay, Chatham, Mass.," 

 where we read of one of 1 1 Y% pounds taken as early 

 as the last week of May, in 1951, 15 a few in Town 

 Cove, Orleans, some miles farther north, and a 

 fluke is picked up occasionally by someone casting 

 into the surf on the outer Cape Cod beach. 18 

 And they were so common near Provincetown and 

 along the inner shore of Cape Cod as far as Well- 

 fleet during the period from 1840 to 1850 that 

 Captain Atwood carried them regularly thence 

 to Boston, recording a catch of 2,000 pounds in a 

 single afternoon inside Provincetown Harbor. 

 But this is the most northerly region where fluke 

 have ever been known to occur in commercial 

 quantities. Even there its numbers were so 

 reduced by a few years of hard fishing that they 

 were described by Goode 17 in 1884 as "only 



'• Florida is usually given as the southern limit for this flounder, but it is 

 possible that the early records from that State (there are no recent ones) 

 actually referred to the southern flounder (P. lethostigmtts), a common Florid- 

 ian fish. 



'• 645 pounds reported from the northwest part of Georges in 1947, 100 

 pounds from the northeastern edge, and 157 pounds from the central and 

 southeastern part. 



" This opens on the outer coast of Cape Cod. 



'• Reported in Salt Water Sportsman, June 1, 1951. 



'• There is a record of this, by Kendall, in 1896, and we have known of other 

 cases, of late years. 



'I Fish. Ind. U. S., Sec. 1, 1884, p. 178. 



