346 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



abundance, though fishermen are well aware that 

 their numbers in any part of the Gulf do vary 

 widely from year to year. Thus it is on record 

 that they were scarce in the Massachusetts Bay 

 region for two or three years prior to 1904, but 

 were plentiful that summer. Commercial land- 

 ings suggest that they were scarce again in 1943, 

 when the landings came to only about 380,000 

 pounds for Maine and Massachusetts combined. 39 

 But they appear to have been much more 

 plentiful again off the Maine coast in 1945 (catch 

 there about 850,000 lb.) ; more plentiful than they 

 have been since, if the commercial landings are a 

 reliable index to the ups and downs of the tuna 

 population, which they may not be. The follow- 

 ing catch statistics of tuna landings (in pounds) 

 suggest that the stock built up more slowly, from 

 the 1943 low in Massachusetts waters, to a peak 

 in 1948, which was a big year on the Ipswich Bay 

 grounds (p. 343), as well as in Cape Cod Bay. 



Year Maine Massachusetts 



1943. 25,000 129,500 



1944 463, 500 272, 900 



1945 859, 500 356, 400 



1946 421, 800 571, 100 



1947 186, 600 726, 400 



1948 229, 100 1, 627, 000 



In 1949, the catch by traps in Cape Cod Bay 

 alone was 811,160 pounds, suggesting a total of 

 more than a million pounds from the Gulf of 

 Maine coast of Massachusetts. 



During that banner season 2,164 large tuna 

 were taken on hand lines where the draggers work, 

 off Ipswich Bay; while 806 fish (305,300 lb.) were 

 taken off Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, in 1948, 1,760 

 fish (449,362 lb.) in 1949. 



But they were scarce in 1950, to judge from 

 reports coming in from all along our coast: a 

 week's fishing, for instance, by the same number of 

 rods and at about the same date, yielded only 

 about half as many on the famous Soldiers Reef 

 off Wedgeport during the International Match 

 that summer as it had the year before. Many 

 fewer were caught by anglers in Cape Cod Bay 

 in 1950 than in 1949, and the tuna disappeared 

 from the Ipswich Bay region unusually early that 

 year, as noted above (p. 344). It is too early 

 (August 5) to forecast how the 1951 season may 

 develop. 



The largest Gulf of Maine catches of which we 

 have heard were of 336 fish, weighing about 75,000 

 pounds taken at one lift of 3 traps set for mackerel 

 on the Barnstable shore of Cape Cod Bay, Aug. 5, 

 1948; 37 and of 120,000 pounds of fish ranging 

 from 25 to 30 pounds seined some 50 miles east of 

 Cape Cod on September 18, 1951, by the Western 

 Explorer, chartered by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service for experimental fishing for tuna. 



Importance. — Horse mackerel were formerly 

 regarded as a nuisance on the Atlantic coast, for 

 bands of them made trouble for fishermen by 

 following herring or mackerel into the traps and 

 pounds, to tear their way out again through the 

 net unless harpooned. Many years ago, when fish 

 oil was more valuable than now, a few were some- 

 times harpooned for oil, which was tried out of 

 the heads and bellies, but there was no sale for 

 their meat. The tuna, however, has been highly 

 valued as a food fish for many years, not only in 

 the Mediterranean, but on the west coast of the 

 United States. And a local demand has developed 

 on our coast, supplied chiefly by local fisheries 

 off Casco Bay, in the Cape Ann-Boone Island 

 region, and in the Cape Cod Bay region. 



With this increasing demand, the reported 

 landings on the Maine and Massachusetts coasts 

 have risen from about 94,000 pounds in 1919, to 

 around 250,000 pounds yearly in the early 

 1930's, and to about 1 to nearly 2 million pounds 

 for the years 1945 to 1948, this last representing 

 around 3,000-6,000 fish, if they averaged 300^00 

 pounds in weight (see table, p. 346). The average 

 value to the fisherman in 1946 was about 7-9 

 cents per pound and all that are caught now sell 

 readily. The annual catches off the entire coast 

 of Nova Scotia ranged from 152,000 pounds to 

 about 1,550,000 pounds during the period 1917 to 

 1928; from 402,000 to 1,820,000 pounds for the 

 5 years 1942^6. 



The commercial catch off the coasts of Maine is 

 made mostly by harpoon; that off northern 

 Massachusetts by hook and line and by harpoon; 

 that off the Cape Cod Bay region mostly in the 

 traps. 38 



» The weights given in the Fisheries statistics are for the dressed fish, and 

 represent about 80 percent of the live weight. 



" A photograph of part of the catch was published in the Boston Herald, 

 August 6, 1948. 



» In 1945 about 60 percent of the catch reported for Maine was by harpoon, 

 almost all the remainder on hand lines; in 1946 about 98 percent was har- 

 pooned. About 86 percent of the Massachusetts catch was taken in traps of 

 one sort or another in 1945, about 90 percent in 1946. 



