FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



345 



pounds) M from Prince Edward Island during the 

 period 1917 to 1928. They may visit the west 

 coast of Newfoundland more regularly; for Wulff 

 speaks of them as common and gives a photo- 

 graph of tuna finning at the surface in Bonne 

 Bay, w but we have not heard anything to suggest 

 that they are anywhere near so plentiful there as 

 they are in Nova Scotian waters or southward. 

 Wulff writes of them as "few" on the southern 

 Newfoundland coast, at present; but they appear 

 to be regular visitors to Conception and Trinity 

 Bays on the southeast coast; Mr. Tibbetts in- 

 formed us that he once saw an abundance of tuna 

 in Notre Dame Bay, midway of the east coast of 

 Newfoundland ; and they are reported from Ham- 

 ilton Inlet, Labrador, their most northerly known 

 outpost on the American Coast of the Atlantic. 



Most of the tuna disappear from the coasts of 

 Maine and of northern Massachusetts by the end 

 of September, or by the first part of October at the 

 latest, depending on whether the season is an 

 early one or a late. 30 But considerable numbers 

 remain in Cape Cod Bay and around the tip of 

 Cape Cod until well into October, or even into 

 November in some years. Thus in 1950 large 

 schools were seen in Provincetown Harbor, and 

 more than 5,000 pounds of small fish, averaging 

 about 75 pounds, were landed there on October 

 ll, 31 while in 1949 about 2,000 pounds were caught 

 nearby between November 1 and 14. 



The dates of the earliest and latest catches, 

 made by a set of 8 traps, at North Truro, Cape 

 Cod Bay, during the period 1943 to 1952 32 are 

 illustrative. 



Year Earliest catch Latest catch 



1943 July 8 Oct. 6 



1944 June 29 



1945 June 25 Oct. 9 



1946 June 15 Oct. 26 



1947 June 21 Oct. 28 



1948 June 11 Oct. 28 



1949 June 7 Nov. 14 



1951 July 7 Oct. 15 



1952 June 24 Oct. 24 



The monthly catches, by these same traps, 

 mark July and August as the most productive 



» Sella, Internat. Rev. Oes. Hydrobiol., Hydrogr., vol. 25, 1931, p. 50. 

 * Internat. Game Fish Assoc. Yearbook, 1943, p. 66. 

 « In 1950 seven tuna of 200-300 pounds were caught off Boars Head, Maine, 

 during the first week of October. 

 81 Reported In Cape Cod Standard Times, October 11, 1950. 

 •' Information contributed by the Pond Village Cold Storage Co. 

 210941— 63 23 



months. The number of pounds of tuna (dressed 

 weight) follows: 



Month Largest catch Smallest catch 



June 17,520 



July 148,139 12,255 



August 185,305 5,029 



September 70,125 «• 2, 365 



October 43,603 330 



November 34 2,197 



Catches have also been reported along western 

 Nova Scotia as late as the third week in October, 

 and Wulff writes of tuna lingering through the 

 month in the bays of Newfoundland, which is as 

 late as they remain in any part of our Gulf. 



Tuna are never reported as seen moving south- 

 ward on their way out of the Gulf to their winter 

 quarters; they drop just out of sight. 



The wintering grounds of the particular bodies 

 of tuna that summer in the Gulf of Maine, and of 

 those that go farther east and north, are not 

 known. Small (20-50 lb.) fish, it is true, have 

 been caught occasionally in coastal waters off 

 southern New England from January to March; 

 off Block Island, for example, in 1928. 36 But the 

 bulk of the northern contingents certainly travel 

 farther. It is probable that they winter in deep 

 water as the Mediterranean tuna do, perhaps 

 along the continental slope off our Middle Atlantic 

 coast, perhaps so much farther south that some of 

 the tuna seen (and caught) in spring in the 

 Straits of Florida are our Gulf of Maine and Nova 

 Scotian fish, on their way north again. 



We are equally in the dark as to the spawning 

 grounds of the American tuna, for although the 

 Gulf of Maine fish are of breeding age, no ripe 

 ones have ever been seen off the New England or 

 Canadian coasts, or even fish approaching ripeness. 



Abundance. — -We dare not guess how many 

 tuna are in our Gulf in any summer, there being no 

 way to estimate how large a proportion of them 

 the yearly catch represents. We suspect that 

 they are fewer than reports would suggest, for 

 being so large, a few hundred of them make a 

 great show if they are at the surface, whereas an 

 equal number of mackerel, for instance, would 

 never be noticed. Neither is any definite informa- 

 tion available as to their annual fluctuations in 



u The year 1944 Is omitted from the calculation for September-November, 

 because the traps were not fished after September 14th that year. 

 u The only catch recorded for November was 2,197 pounds in 1949. 

 *» Sella, Internat. Rev. Oesaraten Hydrobiol., Hydrogr., vol. 25, 1931, p. 62. 



