FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



365 



post anal region. 12 The dorsal, anal, and caudal 

 fin rays are visible in larvae of 6 mm., when the 

 body has already begun to assume the deep thin 

 form so characteristic of the adult butterfish. At 

 a length of 15 mm. the caudal fin is deeply forked, 

 the dorsal and anal fins are formed, and the little 

 fish resembles the adults sufficiently for ready 

 identification. 



Figure 193. — Butterfish {Poronotus triacanthus) . A, egg; 

 B, larva, 6 mm.; C, fry, 15 mm. After Kuntz and 

 Radcliffe. 



During the first summer young butterfish often 

 live in the shelter of the large jellyfishes as young 

 haddock do, and Goode 13 graphically described 

 the fry of 2 to 2% inches as swimming among the 

 tentacles of the red jellyfish (Cyanea), sometimes 

 10 or 15 little fish under one jellyfish, where they 

 find protection from larger fish, but to which they 

 sometimes fall prey. This association, however, 



" Information furnished by O. E. Sette. The illustrations of larvae 2.1 

 mm. and 3.4 mm. long credited by Kuntz and Radclille (Bull. U. S. Bur. 

 Fish., vol. 35, 1918, figs. 63 and 64) to the butterfish and reproduced in the 

 previous edition of this book (Bigelow and Welsh, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish. vol. 

 40, Pt. 1, 1925, fig. 116, c and d) have since been proved to belong to one 

 of the hakes (Urophycis). 



» American Fishes, 1888, p. 222. 



is not essential to their welfare, for fry are often 

 seen living independently at the surface, particu- 

 larly in sheltered bays west and south of Cape 

 Cod. On one occasion in late August 1925, on 

 Nantucket Shoals, we observed numbers of young 

 butterfish 1-1 % inches (26 to 39 mm.) long swim- 

 ming free in the upper stratum of water. And we 

 have seldom found young butterfish with the many 

 Cyanea that we have captured in the Gulf of 

 Maine. 



It seems that the fry hatched earliest in the 

 season grow to a length of 3 to 4 inches by autumn, 

 great numbers of that size having been taken in 

 Rhode Island waters in October. But late- 

 hatched fish probably are not more than 2 to 3 

 inches long at the beginning of winter, and they 

 can grow little during the cold season, for little 

 fish of 3 to 5 inches are seen again in the spring. 

 A series of measurements made by Welsh at 

 Atlantic City, N. J., in August 1921, throws some 

 light on the subsequent rate of growth. The fish 

 feU into two groups: one ranging from 4 to 5% 

 inches (averaging about 4%) and the other from 

 iy 2 to 10% inches. Very likely those of the first 

 group (which were much the more numerous) were 

 in their second summer, for Hildebrand and 

 Schroeder u record a growth of from 4 inches to 

 5% inches from May to October in Chesapeake 

 Bay; those of the second size group were in their 

 third summer, some perhaps in their fourth. It 

 is probable that the butterfish matures when 2 

 years old, and upward of 7 inches long. 



General range.- — Atlantic coast of North America 

 from the offing of South Carolina and from coastal 

 North Carolina waters to the outer coast of Nova 

 Scotia and Cape Breton; northward as a stray to 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence IS and to the south and 

 east coasts of Newfoundland ; 16 southward to 

 Florida in deep water. 



Occurrence in the Gulj of Maine. — This is a reg- 

 ular s umm er visitor to the Gulf of Maine, locally 

 abundant along the shores of Massachusetts, less 

 common along the coast of Maine. Butterfish are 

 common also in some years along the Nova Scotian 

 coast of the Gulf; great numbers were caught in 



i< Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish. vol. 43, Pt. 1, 1928, p. 214. 



u Hoar (Copeia, 1937, p. 238) records two large ones from Margareo Harbor 

 on the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore of Cape Breton, and cites an earlier record 

 for the coast of Quebec. 



" It is reported from Rose Blanche on the south coast of Newfoundland, 

 and from Bulls Bay and Ferryland on the east coast of the Avalon Peninsula 

 (Rep. Newfoundland Fish. Res. Commission, vol. 1, No. 4, 1932, p. 108, and 

 vol. 2, No. 1, 1933, p. 125. 



