FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



357 



landed yearly. The smallest year's catch reported 

 as landed at Portland, Gloucester, and Boston, 

 within the period 1904 to 1929 was 883,000 pounds 

 (in 1919), the largest 4,593,000 pounds (in 1929), 

 the average about 2,000,000 pounds, or anywhere 

 between 4,000 and 18,000 fish per year. And the 

 landings in New England ports ran from 1,715,000 

 to 5,070,000 pounds during the decade 1930 to 1939 

 for southern New England and the Gulf of 

 Maine. The interruption of swordfishing by Ger- 

 man submarines and by the diversion of manpower 

 was reflected in much lower landings during the 

 first two years of the war, as was to be expected. 82 

 But swordfishing picked up again after the war, to 

 landings of about 1,250,000 pounds for southern 

 New England and the Gulf of Maine, including 

 western Browns Bank, in 1944 (New England and 

 Canadian landings combined), to about 2,850,000 

 pounds in 1945, to about 2,500,000 pounds in 

 1946, 83 and to something like 2,000,000 pounds 

 in 1947. 84 



A catch of somewhere between 2 million and 3 

 million pounds would be a reasonable expectation 

 for southern New England and the Gulf of Maine 

 combined in average years. The catch off Cape 

 Breton, eastern Nova Scotia, has run between 1% 

 and 3 million pounds of late years (1939-1946), 

 averaging a little more than 2 million until in 1947, 

 when it fell to about 770,000 pounds. 85 The Nova 

 Scotian catches were not lessened by the submarine 

 menace during the war years. 



It is not known what percentage of the total 

 number of swordfish off our coasts is represented 

 by the catches. But, at least, they do not suggest 

 that any extreme ups and downs took place prior to 

 1947. 



Importance. — Appreciation of the swordfish as a 

 food fish is of rather recent growth. Down to the 

 middle of the past century it was unsalable in 

 Boston and brought a very low price in New York, 

 but of late years the demand would have taken 

 care of a much greater supply than has been 

 brought in. In 1919, the price to the fishermen 

 averaged about 24 cents; in 1928, 22 cents; 

 and 18 cents per pound in 1929 when a large 

 catch was made. In 1945 it brought between 40 

 and 42 cents; and it rose to about 60 cents in 

 1946, but fell again to about 40 cents in 1947. 



Practically all the swordfish brought in to 

 market are harpooned; we have never heard of 

 one caught in net or seine, nor is it likely that any 

 net now in use would hold a large one. Sword- 

 fish have also been taken from time to time 

 on hand lines and on long lines baited for cod or 

 halibut with mackerel or other fish (p. 353). But 

 the numbers caught in these ways have never 

 been large enough to figure to any extent in the 

 total catches, and are not likely to be. 88 Occa- 

 sional swordfish have been caught by anglers of 

 late years, on rod and reel, and sport fishermen 

 would agree that a good-sized broadbill is the 

 premier prize of the sea. 



THE SPEARFISHES OR MARLINS AND THE SAILFISHES. FAMILY ISTIOPHORIDAE 



The spearfishes and sailfishes, like the sword- 

 fish, have a sword formed by the prolongation 

 of the snout and upper jaw. But their sword is 

 rounded toward the tip, not flattened, and narrower 

 than that of the swordfish. Their bodies, too, 

 are closely clothed with narrow lanceolate scales, 

 pointing rearward in general and embedded in the 

 skin, either wholly or with their sharp tips pro- 

 jecting slightly (fig. 188), and their first dorsal 

 fin is much longer, occupying the greater part of 

 the back behind the nape, and it can be depressed 



83 Landings were only about 545,000 pounds in Massachusetts and 7,000 

 pounds tn Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia in 1942; about 479,000 pounds in 

 Massachusetts and about 17,300 pounds in Yarmouth County in 1943. 



** Most recent year for which the landings have been published for the 

 Canadian coast of the Gulf of Maine and for the ports in New England. 



** The Canadian catch statistics for 1947 have not reached us yet. 



'• Information from Dr. A. H. Leim of the Fisheries Research Board of 

 Canada. 



into a groove along the back. They fall in two 

 groups, sailfishes with very large, sail-like dorsal 

 fin, and spearfishes or marlins with lower dorsal. 



The sailfish (Istiophorus americanus Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes 1831), so common in the warmer 

 parts of the Atlantic, is included in the following 

 Key because it has been taken at Woods Hole on 

 several occasions, though not yet recorded from 

 the Gulf of Maine. It is readily recognizable by 

 the fact that the first dorsal fin is much higher 

 than that of the marlins while the ventral fins 

 of the sailfish are 2- or 3-rayed instead of being 

 reduced to a single spine, as in the marlins. The 

 two dorsal fins of the sailfish have usually been 

 described as connected even in the adult. This, 



» Rich (Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, Pt, 2, 1947, pp. 67-82) gives 

 an interesting account of the methods of the New England swordfishery. 



