388 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



near Provincetown during the first part of 

 August, 20 and a few large fish, among great num- 

 bers of small ones were being taken off the south 

 shore of Massachusetts, and even in the Cape Cod 

 Canal ; some also were being caught in the rips and 

 in the surf at the tip of Monomoy Point. 



It remains to be seen whether this increasing run 

 of bluefish in our Gulf is comparable to that of the 

 1860's. However this may prove, history will no 

 doubt repeat itself sooner or later, and these sea 

 pirates will again invade the Gulf in abundance, 

 probably for several summers in succession. 



The disappearance of the bluefish from the Gulf 

 of Maine following the run of the 1860's was part 

 of a general shrinkage in the bluefish population 

 that visits the coast east of New York, and was 

 to be expected, for the bluefish that reach our 

 Gulf are only the northernmost fringe of the north- 

 ern contingent. The increase in the numbers 

 caught north of Cape Cod in the period 1928-31 

 was associated, similarly, with a corresponding 

 rise in the yearly catches made off southern New 

 England from about 55,000 pounds in 1928 to 

 about 650,000-920,000 pounds for 1930-33. 



The scarcity of bluefish north of Cape Cod from 

 the early 1930's down to the early 1940's (in- 

 terrupted in 1938 as noted) was clearly the result 

 of the general decrease that took place in the 

 abundance of bluefish over the northern part of 

 their range as a whole, reflected in the southern 

 New England catch which fell from nearly a 

 million pounds in 1933 21 to an all-time low of 

 only 12,500 pounds in 1945. And there can be 

 no doubt that the small bluefish that have re- 

 appeared in the Cape Cod Bay region and north- 

 ward in increasing numbers during the past 2 or 

 3 years have been the overflow so to speak, from 

 an increasing population to the southward, great 

 numbers of which (mostly small) were being 

 caught from New Jersey to Nantucket in 1950, 

 and are being caught there with some large ones, 

 at this writing (August 15, 1951). 



We ought perhaps to add that it is only in the 

 northern part of its range that the American 

 bluefish falls periodically to a very low level; in 

 1945, for example, when the total catch for New 

 England was only about 26,000 pounds, 223,000 

 pounds were taken in Chesapeake Bay and about 



2% million pounds along the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts. This, again, was to be expected, for it 

 is near the boreal boundary of its range that any 

 warm -water fish is subject to the greatest vicissi- 

 tudes. 



An interesting phase of the fluctuations of the 

 bluefish is that large numbers of very small ones 

 have visited the southern coast of New England 

 even in the poorest summers; some have been 

 reported within the Gulf of Maine. Thus fry so 

 small as evidently to have been the product of 

 that season's hatch were taken in Casco Bay, 

 Maine, in August 1899; slightly larger ones of 

 4 to 5 inches were caught off Plymouth in the 

 summer of 1921, and "snappers" are sometimes 

 reported at Provincetown, at Plymouth, and in 

 the Parker River in northern Massachusetts. 

 Almost all the fish, furthermore, that have been 

 taken within the Gulf of Maine, and the majority 

 of the larger catches that have been taken off 

 southern New England during the past few years 

 have been fish so small (mostly 1 to 2 pounds) 

 that it is not likely they had reached sexual 

 maturity. It is only in good bluefish years that 

 many of the mature fish (weighing upwards of 

 4 or 5 pounds) appear that far north. In poor 

 years large fish are caught in numbers only to the 

 southward of Long Island, N. Y. Prior to August 

 15, 1951 a number of fish up to 7 pounds had been 

 caught in southern New England waters, which 

 may indicate better things to come. 



In the years when bluefish pass Cape Cod in 

 any numbers they usually appear in Cape Cod 

 and Massachusetts Bays about the middle of 

 June, 22 sometimes as early as the first of that 

 month, and they are seen off and on all summer. 

 Most of them depart late in September, but an 

 occasional fish lingers into late autumn. Blue- 

 fish have even been caught about Provincetown 

 as late as December. 



Importance. — The bluefish is an excellent table 

 fish, but it never has been plentiful enough to 

 support a fishery of any magnitude in the Gulf of 

 Maine. Nevertheless, its presence or absence 

 there may be a matter of direct importance to the 

 fishing interests, for it may drive away the mack- 

 erel when it swarms, if not the herring and men- 

 haden as well. Being a favorite game fish, many 



■ Reported in Salt Water Sportsman for August 10. 

 " 920,9fi5 pounds reported in 1933, to be exact. 



» Along southern New England the first blues are expected during the last 

 half of May (p. 384). 



