FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



387 



rounded Cape Cod, 12 while bluefish must have 

 been practically nonexistent north of the Cape in 

 1918, for the entire reported catch there was only 

 34 pounds for that year. 



We should also point out (we cannot explain 

 this) that a larger proportion of the bluefish than 

 usual that did round Cape Cod seem to have 

 continued on to the northern shore of Massachu- 

 setts Bay during this period of general scarcity. 

 Thus about as many (300 lb.) were reported for 

 Essex County in 1906 as for the Cape Cod Bay 

 region; about one-fourth as many in 1908, about 

 one-half to one- third times as many in 1908, 

 1909, and 1910. 13 



Bluefish must have come north in greater 

 numbers in 1927, for they were reported here and 

 there from Cape Ann northward during that 

 summer with small catches in the Casco Bay 

 region, 14 and there seem to have been still more of 

 them in the Gulf during the next two summers, as 

 reflected in reported catches of 4,825 pounds for 

 Essex County, Mass., and 140 pounds for the 

 Casco Bay region, Maine, in 1928; 7,888 pounds 

 for Essex County and 495 pounds for Casco Bay, 

 Maine, in 1929. And so many blues invaded the 

 southwestern part of the Gulf during the next 

 three years that about 68,000 pounds were re- 

 ported for Essex County, and 200 pounds for 

 Casco Bay in 1930; 60,000 pounds for Essex 

 County and 500 pounds for Casco Bay in 1931; 

 and 1,414 pounds for the coast of Maine as a 

 whole in 1932. 16 



Eighty pounds of bluefish were taken in a set 

 of traps at North Truro on Cape Cod Bay on 

 September 9 in 1936; 18 we heard of some large 

 ones caught in the surf on the outer shore of 

 Cape Cod that same year; we know of one caught 

 at Cohasset on the south shore of Massachusetts 

 Bay in 1937, and enough came north again in 

 1938 to provide a commercial catch of about 

 1,800 pounds for Essex County. But this slight 

 upsurge was followed by 6 years, or more, of 

 scarcity so extreme that only small catches were 

 reported from Maine (200 pounds in 1944), or 



•> The catches north of Cape Cod ran only between about 300 pounds and 

 600 pounds for those years. 



" Pound net catches of 1,015 pounds reported for Essex County, 4,623 

 pounds for the Cape Cod Bay region in 1908; 600 pounds and 1,342 pounds, 

 respectively, in 1909; 182 pounds and 419 pounds, respectively, in 1910. 



» The Boston Post for July 24, 1927, reported 65 taken near Bald Head 

 one day, and 35 the next by Capt. Charles F. Pye. 



11 No regional breakdown is available for Massachusetts for that year. 



" Information contributed by the Pond Village Cold Storage Co. 



from northern Massachusetts (200 pounds for 

 Essex County in 1945). The year 1946 was per- 

 haps the low point for our Gulf, when the total 

 catch including the southern coast of Massachu- 

 setts, was only about 1,200 pounds. 



In 1947, however, when the total reported catch 

 for Massachusetts was only 2,300 pounds (none 

 reported for Maine) 17 , schools of small bluefisb, of 

 a pound or so, appeared along the inner shores of 

 Cape Cod, near Wellfleet, in August. They are 

 said to have been more widespread in Cape Cod 

 during the two next summers, and in 1950 bluefish 

 of % pound to IK pounds, with a few up to 4 or 5 

 pounds, rounded Cape Cod in such numbers that 

 Cape Cod Bay was described by anglers as 

 "loaded" with them during that August. 



Many catches of 60 to 100 pounds were made 

 from party boats, both in the Wellfleet side of the 

 Bay and along the Sandwich shore; a set of 8 

 traps at North Truro made small catches (10 to 

 160 pounds) at intervals between July 18 and 

 October 7 of that year, while other traps around 

 Cape Cod Bay from Provincetown and Sandwich 

 made various catches between June and October. 

 Some also worked north across Massachusetts 

 Bay; witness captures of about 6 bushels of 1 to 

 1^-pound bluefish in a trap off Marblehead on the 

 north shore of Massachusetts Bay, July 21 . 18 We 

 heard of at least one taken at Hampton, N. H., 

 also a few at Kennebunkport, Maine, early that 

 September, 19 and, at least, one from the lower 

 Kennebec River. They continued plentiful also 

 in Cape Cod Bay until the first week of that Sep- 

 tember. And while few, if any, were seen there 

 after the severe northeast gale of mid-September, 

 some were caught along the outer shore of Cape 

 Cod as late as the first week of that October, and 

 perhaps until later still. 



All we can say, as to the catch in 1951 up to 

 this writing (August 15) is that the earliest report 

 of a bluefish in Cape Cod Bay was for June 19; a 

 small one was taken at Plum Island, northern 

 Massachusetts, on July 6; good catches (presum- 

 ably of small fish) were reported in Cape Cod Bay 

 by the last week of July (2,545 pounds taken in 

 one set of traps at North Truro, July 7-28); a 

 tremendous run of small bluefish were reported 



>' This is the most recent year for which catch statistics have been published. 

 >< Reported in the Boston Herald for July 31, 1950. 

 i' Reported in the Saltwater Sportsman for September 15, and October 6, 

 1950. 



