FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



419 



pounds or longer than 3 feet is a rarity. Off 

 southern Massachusetts the largest fish run 6 to 

 10 pounds in weight, while most of the larger ones 

 taken there weigh from 1 to 6 pounds and are 14 

 to 26 inches long. An average of 5 pounds has 

 been reported for Massachusetts Bay, but this is 

 probably excessive. The average proportion be- 

 tween length and weight of weakfish is about as 

 follows: 



The female members of a school usually run 

 somewhat larger than the males. 



Habits. — Although there are very few weakfish 

 in the Gulf of Maine today, if any, they were for a 

 time so plentiful in its southwestern waters (and 

 may at any time reappear there in abundance) that 

 their habits deserve more attention than the fish's 

 present status would call for. 



In the southern part of its range, (e. g., along the 

 Carolinas) this is said to be a resident species. 

 But it is strictly seasonal to the northward, appear- 

 ing in spring, spending the summer inshore, and 

 withdrawing again in autumn. Within the mouth 

 of Chesapeake Bay the fishing season usually is 

 from the middle of April (commencing a week or 

 two later up the bay) to the middle of November, 

 with good catches occasionally made as late as the 

 first of December. On the southern New England 

 coast, as illustrated by Woods Hole, weakfish are 

 caught from May (some years as early as April, 

 other years not until June) until the middle of 

 October. Probably they are not to be expected 

 north of the elbow of Cape Cod until June (in the 

 years when they come that far north), nor later 

 than September or October at latest, for most of 

 the weakfish disappear from the middle Atlantic 

 coast before the end of October. 



The lower limit to the temperature range pre- 

 ferred by the weakfish has not been determined. 

 But it has long been known that they are sensitive 

 to cold. And a case is on record (November 27, 

 1903) when many were benumbed by a sudden 

 chilling of the water, near Beaufort, North Caro- 



lina. 69 Hence seasonal chilling is doubtless the 

 event that drives them away from the middle 

 Atlantic and New England coasts in late autumn. 



The capture of weakfish in some numbers be- 

 tween the offings of Chesapeake Bay and of Cape 

 Hatteras by otter trawlers during the winter 

 months, during the past twenty-odd years, 70 has 

 dispelled some of the mystery in which the winter 

 home of this fish was previously shrouded. The 

 fact that 5 small ones were picked up in the 50 to 

 55 fathom zone off Rhode Island by the dragger 

 Eugene H m mid-January 1950, also 6 more south 

 of Marthas Vineyard in about 55 fathoms, 71 and 

 another 5 pounder on February 20 72 is evidence 

 that some of those that summer to the northward 

 only move offshore to escape falling temperature. 

 Others may move southward in winter for long 

 distances, and offshore, as some of the northward- 

 summering scup seem to do (p. 413). 



Weakfish tend to hold close inshore during their 

 summer stay on the coast; we have never heard of 

 one on Nantucket Shoals, and only once of 

 weakfish caught on Georges Bank. 73 They are 

 usually found in shallow waters along open sandy 

 shores and in the larger bays and estuaries, in- 

 cluding salt marsh creeks. They even run up 

 into river mouths, but never into fresh water, so 

 far as we know. 



Weakfish move in schools, often small but 

 sometimes consisting of many thousands. 74 They 

 have been described repeatedly as swimming near 

 the surface, this being the general rule near New 

 York and along the southern New England coast, 

 where great numbers are caught on hook and line 

 within a few feet of the top of the water. And 

 their preference for shallow water is reflected in 

 the large numbers caught in pound nets along the 

 middle Atlantic coast. Probably few descend 

 deeper than 5 to 6 fathoms during the summer, but 

 the precise level at which they are to be caught at 



•' Smith, North Carolina Geol. and Economic Survey, vol. 2, 1907, p. 411. 



n See Pearson, Investigational Report No. 10, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 

 1932, p. 14, table 2, for the catches for the winter of 1930-1931, by species and 

 by months. The Albatross III, also, trawled 83 weakfish in 29 fathoms off 

 Capo Hatteras, and 1 in 14 fathoms off Charleston, S. C, in late January 1950. 



" Reported by Capt. Henry Kllmrn. We saw one of them. 



7 * We saw this fish. 



71 Two nsh were reported by an otter trawler from the offshore part of the 

 Bank in the summer of 1950. 



n A notable and oft-quoted instance was off Rockaway Beach, N. Y., 

 July 1881, when a school was sighted so large that three menhaden steamers 

 seined some 200,000 pounds of weakfish from it, averaging Hi to 3 feet In 

 length. 



