FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



405 



White perch Morone americana 



(Gmelin) 1789 



Sea perch 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1134. 



Description. — The white perch resembles its 

 larger relative, the striped bass, in the number, 

 outline, and arrangement of its fins, and in its 

 deep caudal peduncle without longitudinal keels. 

 But it is a deeper bodied fish, (only about 2% to 3 

 times as long as deep, not counting the caudal 

 fin) ; and it is more flattened sidewise (p. 390) . The 

 dorsal profile of its body is more convex than that 

 of a bass, but its head is rather noticeably concave 

 and its mouth is smaller. Furthermore, there is 

 no free space between the two dorsal fins of the 

 white perch, whereas they are separated by a short 

 interspace in the striped bass. The perch has 

 fewer rows of scales between gill cover and base of 

 tail than the bass (about 48 in the white perch, 

 60 or more in the striped bass), and its anal spines 

 are much stouter than those of the bass with the 

 second and third about equal in length (graduated 

 in the bass); also it usually has only one spine 

 (sometimes two) at the margin of the gill cover. 

 Finally, there is a constant difference in color. 



The first dorsal fin (9 spines) of the perch is 

 rounded in outline with its thud and fourth 

 spines longest, and although there is no free 

 space between the two dorsal fins they are entirely 

 separated by a deep notch. The second dorsal 



fin (1 spine and 12 rays) is rhomboid in outline 

 and so short that it leaves a rather long caudal 

 peduncle bare. The anal fin (8 to 10 rays pre- 

 ceded by 3 stout spines) originates under the middle 

 of the second dorsal and is of the same shape as 

 the latter. The ventrals originate a little way 

 behind the pectorals and each ventral is armed 

 with one stout spine at its forward margin. Both 

 the pectorals and the ventrals of the perch are 

 larger, in comparison with the size of the fish, 

 than those of the striped bass. 



Color. — The upper surface is variously olive, 

 dark grayish green, or dark silvery gray, shading 

 to paler olive or silvery green on the sides and to 

 silvery white on the belly, while large fish often 

 show a bluish luster on the head. The fins often 

 are more or less dusky. The ventral fins and the 

 anal fin are sometimes rose-colored at the base. 

 The sides of young specimens are marked with 

 pale longitudinal stripes but these usually fade 

 out with growth. 



Size. — White perch are occasionally as much as 

 15 inches long, 5 inches or more deep, and 2 pounds 

 or a little more in weight; but the average is 8 to 

 10 inches long and 1 pound in weight, or less. 



Habits. — The white perch is much more closely 

 restricted in its seaward range than the bass, for 

 while they are taken in undiluted sea water along 

 southern New England, and at various other locali- 

 ties thence westward and southward, they are 

 much more plentiful in ponds connected with the 

 sea, in the brackish water of bays behind barrier 



Figure 210. — White perch (Morone americana). From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



