FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



425 



on various shrimps (perhaps their chief diet), 

 crabs, and other crustaceans, small mollusks, 

 worms, and on young fish. 



Breeding habits. — Kingfish spawn in bays and 

 sounds from June until August, but it is not likely 

 that any young that might be hatched in the Gulf 

 of Maine from eggs laid by the occasional visitors 

 would survive its low temperature. Welsh and 

 Breder M describe the spawning and early develop- 

 ment of this species. Young fry of % to 1-inch 

 already show most of the structural characters of 

 the adult, including the scales, and so are readily 

 recognizable as kingfish though they vary widely 

 in color, ranging from the pattern of the adult to 

 almost uniform blackish brown. Welsh and 

 Breder found from an examination of the scales, 

 confirmed by a large series of measurements, that 

 kingfish are 4 to 6 inches long by the first winter, 

 average about 10 inches the second winter, and 

 13% the third. Many males ripen when 2 years 

 old, but few females until 3 years old. 



General range. — Atlantic coasts of the United 

 States from Florida (Pensacola, Key West) north- 

 ward regularly to Cape Cod ; most numerous from 

 Chesapeake Bay to New York; known as far north 

 as Casco Bay, Maine, as a stray. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This excellent 

 food and game fish reaches the Gulf of Maine only 

 as a stray from the south. So far as we can learn 

 the only positive records of it within our limits are 

 as follows, south to north: Monomoy and North 

 Truro on Cape Cod in 1896 (collected by Dr. W. C. 

 Kendall); one taken at Provincetown, July 1847, 

 another there in November of that same year and 

 many small ones, apparently chilled by the cold, 

 that appeared in that harbor in 1879; one taken 

 at the entrance of Boston Harbor in a lobster pot 

 some time before 1833; one at Lynn in 1840; one 

 8 inches long off Marblehead on October 15, 1872; 

 one of 6}i inches at Danvers, October 28, 1874; 

 others at Nahant (one record), 95 and in Casco Bay. 



Catch statistics, if taken at face value, would 

 suggest that kingfish reached the northern shore 

 of Massachusetts Bay (Essex County) in unprece- 

 dented numbers during the period 1931 to 1938, 96 



" Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 39, 1924, pp. 191-194. 



•' Small amounts of "kingfish" appear In tho pound-net returns published 

 by the State of Massachusetts at various localities in Massachusetts Bay, but 

 Sshermen Inform us that these were not the true kingfish but some large 

 jpecies of the mackerel tribe. 



•• For Essex County, Mass., 2,029 pounds reported during 1931; 34,981 

 pounds for 1933; 5,100-10,600 pounds for 1933, 1935, 1937 and 1938. 



but we are informed by William Royce of the 

 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service that all the fish 

 taken by vessels sailing out of Gloucester during 

 these years were credited to that port, irrespective 

 of where caught or where they were landed. 

 There is no reason to suppose that any of these 

 kingfish or "king whiting" actually came from as 

 far east or north as Cape Cod, or even from any- 

 where in southern New England waters for that 

 matter. And this applies equally to 466 pounds 

 reported in 1932 from Maine. It is, in short, 

 an unusual event for a kingfish to round the 

 elbow of Cape Cod, or for a small school of its 

 fry, nor have we heard of any taken anywhere in 

 the Gulf during recent years. 



Importance. — The kingfish is not plentiful 

 enough in the Gulf to interest either commercial 

 fishermen or anglers. It is one of the better table 

 fishes, and a favorite with surf anglers along the 

 coasts of New York, New Jersey, and southward, 

 as it bites readily and fights well. In the words 

 of a well-known angler, "no fish that swims the 

 sea makes a better dish. Certainly no bottom 

 living fish plays such a game for the angler's real 

 delight." 97 



Black drum 98 Pogonias cromis (Linnaeus) 1766 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1482. 



Description. — A short deep body (less than 

 three times as long as it is deep to the base of the 

 caudal fin) with high-arched back but flattish belly 

 is characteristic of the drum. The profile of the 

 face is even more diagnostic, for the mouth is 

 horizontal and set very low, the eye high, and the 

 chin bears several barbels. The arrangement and 

 sizes of the fins are essentially the same as in the 

 weakfish, except that the second (soft-rayed) 

 dorsal is relatively shorter, and that the anal spine 

 is much stouter. The jaw teeth are small and 



" Bhead, Bait Angling for Common Fishes, 1907, p. 145. 



11 The channel bass or red drum Sciaenops ocellatu) (Linnaeus) 1766, a south- 

 ern sciaenid uncommon east or north of New York, is represented in the 

 collection of the Boston Society of Natural History by a mounted specimen 

 labeled "near Portland, Me.," but as this fish was probably purchased 

 in the market, it is likely that it had been shipped from the south than that 

 it was actually caught nearby. Should this drum ever be taken in the Oulf 

 of Maine, its relationship to the weakfish, kingfish, and spot would be ap- 

 parent from the arrangement of its fins, especially from the shortness of the 

 anal fin relative to the soft (second) dorsal. But it is easily distinguished 

 from the weakfish by the fact that its upper Jaw extends beyond the lower 

 Instead of vice versa; from the spot, by the barbels on its chin; and from the 

 kingfish by having several of these barbels instead of only one; by the shape 

 of its tall fin; and by the presence of a conspicuous black blotch (sometimes 

 as many as 4 or more blotches) on each side at the base of the caudal fin 

 which affords a ready field mark for its identification. 



