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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



larval stage. The transverse pigment bars are 

 diagnostic prior to the appearance of the caudal 

 rays, while the curiously concave ventral profile 

 of the throat region with the comparatively long 

 slender trunk are equally so, thereafter. And 

 the great number of dorsal and anal fin rays, 

 coupled with the small mouth, make identification 

 easy after the fins are formed. The witch also 

 grows to a larger size before it completes its 

 metamorphosis than does any other of the right- 

 handed, small-mouthed flatfishes that are found 

 in the Gulf of Maine. 



Measurements of the young (American as well as 

 European) , suggest that the free-drifting stage may 

 last as long as 4 to 6 months for the witch, which is 

 much longer than for any of our other flatfishes. 



Fry of 2 % to 4% inches, and of 3 % to 4% inches, 

 such as we have trawled in July and August, re- 

 spectively, probably are in their second summer, 

 their sizes depending on how early in the season 

 they were hatched the year before. The sub- 

 sequent rate of growth has not been traced for 

 American fish. If Molander's 89 estimate for 

 European fish is correct, the size group centering 

 at 6% to 8 inches that was prominent in our August 

 catches of 1936 were in their third summer. 90 

 And subsequent growth is very slow. 



General range.- — Moderately deep water in both 

 sides of the North Atlantic. Its European range 

 is from northern Norway and Iceland south to the 

 west coast of France. In American waters its 

 free-drifting larvae are reported from as far north 

 as the Strait of Belle Isle, around the coasts of 

 Newfoundland, and over the Grand Banks region 

 in general. 91 The adult is known from the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence ; the south coast of Newfoundland ; 

 the southern part of the Grand Banks; in Cabot 

 Strait; along outer Nova Scotia and the Scotian 

 Banks; throughout the Gulf of Maine; and thence 

 westward and southward along the continental 

 shelf and slope as far as the offing of northern 

 Virginia (lat. 37° 50' N.) in moderate depths, to 

 the offing of Cape Hatteras in deep water. 92 



Occurrence in the Gulf oj Maine.- — The distribu- 

 tion of this flatfish in our Gulf is governed by the 



<• Based on the structure of the otoliths; Pub. de Circonstance, No. 85, 

 Cons. Perm. Intemat. Explor. Mer. 1925, pp. 12-14. 



•° Bigelow and Schroeder, Biol. Bull., vol. 76, 1939, pp. 318-319. 



•' See Frost, Res. Bull. No. 4, Newfoundland Dept. Nat. Resources, 1938, 

 Chart 6, for Newfoundland localities. 



*> Ooode and Bean (Smithsonian Contrib. Know]., vol. 30, 1895, p. 433) 

 list it from lat. 34° 39' N., 603 fathoms. 



fact that it is a fish of at least moderately deep 

 water, seldom caught as shoal as 10 fathoms. 93 In 

 fact, its very existence remained unsuspected by 

 Massachusetts fishermen until 1877, when the 

 United States Fish Commission caught numbers 

 of them while trawling in the deeper parts of 

 Massachusetts Bay. Since that time it has been 

 reported (or we have trawled it, or both) from St. 

 Mary Bay on the Scotian side of the Gulf; in the 

 Bay of Fundy and its tributaries (where Hunts- 

 man describes it as taken very generally below 15 

 fathoms, if not in any great numbers); at East- 

 port; off Mount Desert, where we have trawled it 

 as shallow as 10 fathoms; near Monhegan Island; 

 off Seguin Island; off Cape Porpoise; near the Isles 

 of Shoals (where Welsh saw a few taken from the 

 gill nets set in about 25 fathoms in April 1913) ; in 

 the deep trough to the westward of Jeffreys Ledge; 

 in Ipswich Bay; near Gloucester; off Boston Har- 

 bor; at various localities in the deeper parts of 

 Massachusetts Bay; and in both branches of the 

 deep trough of the Gulf west and east down to a 

 depth of 140 fathoms; in the deep channel, between 

 Browns Bank and Georges Bank, and on the slope 

 to the southeast. 



Trawlers bring them in regularly from Browns 

 Bank, also from Georges, where Welsh found them 

 widespread, and from Nantucket Shoals. 



This is enough to show that the witch is to be 

 expected anywhere in our Guff where the water is 

 deeper than 15 to 20 fathoms, if the bottom is 

 suitable. 



The largest catches are made on the so-called 

 South Channel grounds which include the slopes 

 that lead down from the offing of Cape Cod on the 

 one side and from Georges Bank on the other, 

 into the southwestern part of the basin; farther 

 north off eastern Massachusetts; and off western 

 Maine. And the published statistics suggest that 

 gray soles are about as plentiful as the American 

 dabs are on the various grounds where the trawlers 

 work regularly. 



Reported landings of gray soles by New 

 England vessels in 1947 were as follows for the 

 several statistical areas: 9 * Browns Bank, 44,000 

 pounds; off western Nova Scotia, 2,000 pounds; 

 off eastern Maine, 17,000 pounds; off central 



w A stray specimen, picked up in a pound net at Eastport, Maine, many 

 years ago, was reported by Gill (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1873, 

 p. 360) as a new species, Glyptocepkatus acadianut. 



<* To the nearest 1,000 pounds. 



