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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



reason few are caught then, but they bite very 

 greedily throughout the rest of the summer on 

 clams, bits of crab, and sea worms (Nereis), 

 as do the immature fish throughout their stay. 



Along southern New England scup spawn 

 from May to August, but chiefly in June. Prob- 

 ably spawning both commences later and continues 

 later for the few fish that manage to summer in 

 Massachusetts Bay, and it may ba assumed 

 that they spawn wherever they summer. 



The eggs are buoyant, transparent, spherical, 

 rather small (about 0.9 mm. in diameter), and 

 have one oil globule. Incubation occupies only 

 about 40 hours at 72° (probably two to three 

 days in the June temperatures of Massachusetts 

 Bay) and judging from the season of spawning at 

 Woods Hole, it is not likely that development can 

 proceed normally in water colder than about 

 50° F. At hatching the larvae are about 2 mm. 

 long, the yolk is fully absorbed within 3 days 

 when the larva is about 2.8 mm. long, and there 

 is then a characteristic row of black pigment 

 spots along the ventral margin of the trunk. At 

 25 mm. the pectorals have assumed their pointed 

 outline and the caudal fin is slightly forked, but 

 the ventrals are still so small, and the body so 

 slender, that the little fish hardly suggest their 

 parentage until they are somewhat larger. 49 



In southern New England waters fry of 2 to 3 

 inches, evidently the product of that season's 

 spawning, have been taken in abundance as early 

 as September; they are 2 J / 2 to Z){ inches long in 

 October, and they may be as long as 4 inches at 

 Woods Hole in November. Apparently young 

 scup grow very little during the winter, for many 

 of 4 inches are seen in the spring, probably the 

 crop of the preceding season. According to 

 Neville's unpublished studies, 50 scup average about 

 4K inches (11 cm.) long at one year of age (from 

 hatching), about 674 inches (16 cm.) at two years, 

 about 7% inches (20 cm.) at three years, about 9 

 inches (23 cm.) at four years, and about 9% inches 

 (25 cm.) at five years. If this age schedule is 

 correct, the ages of the large fish of 12 to 15 inches, 

 weighing 1% to 2% pounds are considerably 

 greater than the 3 to 5 years that have been 

 credited to them, following Baird's 81 estimate. 



General range. — East coast of the United States, 

 from North Carolina to Cape Cod; casual in the 

 Gulf of Maine as far as Eastport, Maine. 62 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Although the 

 scup is one of the most familiar of shore fishes 

 right up to the elbow of Cape Cod, with the 

 southern coast of Massachusetts and its off-lying 

 islands yielding annual catches of 1 million to 2 

 million pounds in good years, very few find their 

 way past Monomoy Point into the colder waters 

 of the Gulf of Maine. 



The first definite mention of scup caught north 

 of Cape Cod is Storer's statement that one was 

 taken at Nahant in 1835, and another in 1836, 

 but that it was never seen there before. Possibly 

 these and one picked up dead at Cohasset in 

 1833 a were the survivors of a smack load that 

 had been liberated in Boston Harbor a year or two 

 earlier, and a similar plant was made in Plymouth 

 Bay in 1834 or 1835. There is no reason to sup- 

 pose that these planted fish established themselves. 

 But when the practice of setting mackerel nets 

 outside Provincetown Harbor was first adopted 

 (about 1842) a few scup were taken in them from 

 year to year; odd fish were caught in Cape Cod 

 Bay yearly and between Boston and Cape Ann 

 during the period 1860 to 1867; and a number were 

 taken in a weir on MUk Island near Gloucester in 

 1878. It has been learned since (mainly from the 

 catches of the pound nets and traps) that there 

 were a few scup in northern Massachusetts waters 

 in most years (or terms of years) down to the 

 first decade or so of the present century, alter- 

 nating with other years, or terms of years, when 

 only an occasional fish was taken, or none. 



In most of the years for which information is 

 available, and when there have been any scup 

 north of Cape Cod, the combined catches of the 

 various traps have run from less than 100 pounds 

 to 1 to 2 thousand pounds at most, whether for 

 Cape Cod Bay or for the northern side of Massa- 

 chusetts Bay (Essex County). 64 But Cape Cod 

 Bay seems to have seen what might almost be 

 called peaks of abundance in 1879 (catch, about 

 7,000 fish); in 1882-1885 (yearly catches 2,372- 



« Kuntz and Radcliffe (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 35, 1918, p. 106) describe 

 the early development of the scup. 

 » Information from James A. Mason, of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

 •' Rcpt. TJ. S. Comm. Fish. (1871-1872) 1873, p. 228. 



•» The southern scup, Stenotomus chnjsops (Linnaeus) 1766, which was first 

 reported from Charleston, S. C, ranges northward about to Cape Hatteras. 



" Goode, Fish. Ind. TJ. S., Sect. 1, 1884, p. 387. 



" Statistics of the shore fisheries were published by the State of Massa- 

 chusetts in the Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Fisheries and Game 

 for 1879-1911 and 1917-1919; of the Division of Fisheries and Game for 1920 

 and 1921. 



