FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



393 



shallow estuaries in Connecticut and in Massa- 

 chusetts during the abnormally hot August of 

 1937. 37 They are equally at home in fresh or 

 slightly brackish water, and in coastal salinities 

 of 3.1 to 3.3 percent. But their usual wanderings 

 do not take them out into waters of full oceanic 

 salinities (3.5 percent or higher). 



Migrations. — No phase of the life history of 

 the bass arouses as much discussion among fisher- 

 men as their migrations. And the picture still 

 remains so puzzling that we dare not attempt 

 anything more than a brief summary of what has 

 been learned to date. 



It seems certain that stripers do not ordinarily 

 travel far until they are 2 years old. Thus the 

 young fish from the enormous year classes of 1934 

 and 1942 — apparently produced in the Chesapeake 

 Bay-Delaware Bay region chiefly — did not appear 

 in New England waters until 2 years later. But 

 the fact that they did appear there and in the 

 Gulf of Maine in hordes in the summers of 1936 

 and 1944 shows that a bass is capable of very 

 extensive journeys, once it has reached its third 

 year. 



It has long been known, too, that the pound 

 nets on Long Island and along southern New 

 England ordinarily make large catches only in 

 the spring (peak in May), and again from early 

 October into November; 38 also that large spring 

 catches are made progressively later in the season, 

 proceeding from south to north, the reverse being 

 true in the autumn. This, of course, suggests 

 that part at least of the bass population follows 

 the shore line northward and eastward as far as 

 southern New England in spring, to return 

 westward and southward in autumn. And this 

 is verified for bass 2 and 3 years old by the 

 returns from tagging experiments by Merriman 

 at the eastern end of Long Island and in Con- 

 necticut during the years 1936 to 1938, 39 for 

 recaptures of fish that had been tagged there in 

 May came mostly from farther east along southern 

 New England, one from Cape Cod Bay, and 

 another from Cohasset on the southern shore of 



» Merriman, Fishery Bulletin No. 35, TJ. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 1941, vol. 50, p. 43. 



« See Merriman, Fish. Bull. No. 35, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1941, 

 vol. 60, pp. 33, 34, fig. 24, for details. 



w For details we refer the reader to Merriman's original account (Fish. Bull 

 No. 35, Fish and Wildlife Service, 1941, vol. 50, pp. 36-42, figs. 26-29; also 

 pp. 71-73, tables 17-20), which is the most authoritative discussion of the 

 subject that has appeared yet. 



the inner part of Massachusetts Bay. But the 

 recaptures from fish tagged in summer were 

 mostly from nearby (evidence of a stationary 

 population), while those for autumn-tagged fish 

 were scattered along the coast from the eastern 

 end of Long Island to Chesapeake Bay, with one 

 from Croatan Sound, one from Albemarle Sound 

 (Stumpy Point), and one from Pamlico Sound in 

 North Carolina. 



But the picture is by no means so simple as the 

 foregoing might suggest. To begin with, no evi- 

 dence is available as to the movements of large 

 bass, other than the successive dates when they 

 appear or disappear off different parts of the 

 coast. 40 And it is no less true of bass than it is of 

 mackerel (p. 330), that successive appearances and 

 disappearances from place to place are not con- 

 clusive evidence of along shore migration. Yet 

 it is now certain that while some bodies of bass 

 carry out extensive migrations north and east in 

 spring, west and south in autumn, other bodies 

 do not. Thus, as Merriman points out, 41 the 

 bass of the northeastern shore of the Gulf of 

 Mexico are completely isolated, while those of the 

 Atlantic coast south of Cape Hatteras form an- 

 other separate population, few of which (if any) 

 ever spread farther north. The bass of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence and of the lower St. Lawrence 

 River appear to be wholly isolated also. And 

 while some interchange may take place between 

 the populations found in various bays and rivers 

 around the outer coast of Nova Scotia, it is 

 doubtful whether these have any regularly 

 migratory association, either with the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence fish or with those of more southern 

 waters, except in occasional years (p. 398). 



Chesapeake Bay, however, harbors both migra- 

 tory bass, 42 as proved by tagging experiments 

 (p. 393) and other evidence (p. 393), and nonmigra- 

 tory as proved by the fact that fish of all sizes are 

 taken there both in summer and in winter, though 

 not so many of them as in spring and fall. Sim- 

 ilarly, some bass winter in northern waters though 

 most of the fish appear to be migrants there; and 

 perhaps a considerable percentage do so in the 

 lower reaches of the Hudson River estuary. 



« The few returns so far from bass of 5 pounds and upward that have beea 

 tagged have been from nearby, and soon after they were released. 

 " Fish. Bull. No. 35, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1941, vol. 50, p. 42. 

 « Using this term to mean extensive seasonal journeys. 



