FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



415 



5,354 fish); in 1887, 65 in 1890 (1,890 fish); and in 

 1895-1896 (14,362 and 5,083 fish, respectively); 

 also the northern side of Massachusetts Bay in 

 1909-1910 (8,417 pounds 66 and 4,181 pounds); 

 both Cape Cod Bay (6,000 pounds) and the north 

 shore of Massachusetts Bay (3,217 pounds) in 

 1917. 



The cataclysmic shrinkage that took place in the 

 stock of scup off southern Massachusetts between 

 1896 (prior to which the annual catch there had 

 usually run from 1 to 3 million pounds) and 1902, 

 when it fell to only about one-tenth as much (about 

 200,000 pounds) appears to have involved the scup 

 in Cape Cod Bay also, for none at all were reported 

 there from 1907 through 1911, or in 1918-1920, 67 

 except that there was an unusually large run there 

 in 1917. But 1908, 1909, and 1919 were good 

 scup years for the north shore of Massachusetts, 68 

 "good," that is, for those northerly waters, suggest- 

 ing that when conditions favor, a small indepen- 

 dent population may be present there. Perhaps 

 the fact that larger catches than usual are not 

 always registered in both these regions in the same 

 year may point in this same direction. 



No scup were reported from Essex County for 

 1919, 1928, or 1930; nor were enough taken in 

 Cape Cod Bay in those years to cause any local 

 comment. 69 Though the fisheries statistics do not 

 throw any light on the status of the scup north of 

 Cape Cod subsequently, 60 there cannot have been 

 many of them in Cape Cod Bay regularly at any 

 time during the past 15 years or so, for the only 

 scup that were taken in a set of 8 traps at North 

 Truro from 1935 down through 1950 were 125 

 pounds taken on June 28, 1938, evidently one 

 small school of perhaps 100-125 individuals. 61 

 And 33 barrels (about 4,950 pounds) taken in a 



H The reported catch for the town of Barnstable for that year was so large 

 (69,168) as to suggest that it included scup from the south shore. 



u If all these really were scup and not some other fish. 



" No information is available for the years 1912-1916. 



M Pound net catches for Essex County of 1,203 pounds, 8,417 pounds and 

 4,181 pounds, respectively. 



« Catches reported for these years for Barnstable County include not only 

 such scup as may have been taken in Capo Cod Bay, but the catches (doubt- 

 less far larger) for the southern coast, which does not fall within the limits of 

 the Gulf of Maine. 



M We are informed by William Royce of the V. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 that catches since 1931 have been credited to the home ports of the vessels 

 making them, wholly irrespective of whero the fish were caught or landed. 

 There is no reason to suppose that any significant part of the landings of scup 

 reported for Essex County since then (which reached a maximum of 7,945,209 

 pounds for 1938) actually came from Massachusetts Bay, or from anywhere 

 In Massachusetts waters, for that matter. 



•' Information from the Pond Village Cold Storage Co. 



trap at Sandwich on the southern shore of Cape 

 Cod Bay on Sept. 15 or 16, 1944, after a heavy gale, 

 were the only scup caught in this set of traps from 

 1944 to 1950. 62 It would be interesting to know 

 whether they came through the Cape Cod Canal 

 or around the Cape. 



Figure 215. — Scup (Slenotomus versicolor). Annual catch 

 of scup (pounds) in pound nets and traps in Massa- 

 chusetts, from statistics published by the State Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries and Game. 



Thus the presence of considerably greater num- 

 bers of scup on the southern coast of Massachusetts 

 since about 1928 than had been there during the 

 preceding decade 63 seems not to have been re- 

 flected in Cape Cod Bay except in sporadic cases. 

 And we have not heard of any caught in the north- 

 ern side of Massachusetts Bay during the past few 

 summers. 



In any case, Cape Ann is the northern boundary 

 to the usual range of the scup. In 1896, a year of 

 plenty not only in Massachusetts Bay but to the 

 south in general, occasional specimens were taken 

 daily in Casco Bay in the Small Point traps during 

 the first half of July, and in July 1951, three were 

 reported from Small Point, Maine, sporadic visits 

 such as may be expected of any southern stray. 

 In 1938 about 100 pounds of scup were landed in 

 Lincoln County, Maine, probably from nearby, 



K Information from Benjamin Morrow, who operates these traps. 



« The yearly landings of scup for Massachusetts rose from not more than 

 103,000 pounds for the decade 1912 to 1921 to about 1,100,000 pounds for the 5 

 years 194.3-1947. But there is no way of knowing how large a part of the 

 catches reported during the latter period were actually taken in Massachu- 

 setts waters and not farther west and south along the coast. 



