FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



491 



est bays of our Gulf in midsummer, when the 

 water is at its warmest, to work in again in early 

 autumn, such being their custom near Woods 

 Hole. 



There is no reason to suppose that they inhabit 

 the central deeps of the Gulf of Maine regularly 

 unless some of them repair thither in winter, 

 though it would not be astonishing to find an odd 

 sand eel in deep water at any time; in fact, we 

 towed a young one about 1% inches long over the 

 deep basin southeast of Grand Manan on June 

 10, 1915. But they must be plentiful on Nan- 

 tucket Shoals, for they were found in the stomachs 

 of cod caught there by the Halcyon and by the 

 Albatross II, from time to time throughout the 

 springs and summers of 1928-1930. There are 

 also sand eels over the shallows of Georges and 

 Browns Banks, whence they have been brought 

 to the Bureau of Fisheries by fishermen on several 

 occasions. 42 



Further northward, fishermen are familiar with 

 them all along the outer coast of Nova Scotia and 

 on the Scotian Banks; they are so common near 

 Canso that a seine, dragged on a sandy beach 

 there "captured hundreds in a short time"; 43 they 



are reported from Prince Edward Island 44 and 

 from the Magdalens in abundance, 46 here and there 

 along the north shore of the Gulf; from the Strait 

 of Belle Isle; also from Sandwich Bay and Sloop 

 Harbor in southeastern Labrador; and they are 

 to be expected all along the outer Labrador coast, 

 for we have seen one taken at Eclipse Harbor, 

 near Cape Chidley. 46 Sand eels have also been 

 found on the southern side of Hudson Strait, and 

 in the southern and western parts of Hudson 

 Bay. 47 But these northern specimens may repre- 

 sent a distinct race for they have more fin rays 

 (63-67 dorsal, 28-33 anal); Vladykov, in fact, 

 has classed them as a new subspecies (hudsonicus) 

 of the Greenland launce (A dubius). 



Sand eels are locally plentiful southward as far 

 as northern New Jersey where we have seen 

 squirrel hake gorged with them; they are reported 

 as "common" as far as Cape May at the entrance 

 to Delaware Bay, 48 and have been reported as far 

 south as Cape Hatteras. 49 



Importance.- — It is only for bait that sand eels 

 are of any commercial value in our Gulf, for which 

 purpose 67,800 pounds were landed from the traps 

 in Massachusetts in 1919, 20,000 pounds in 1946. 



BLENNY-LIKE FISHES. FAMILIES LUMPENIDAE, PHOLIDAE, AND STICHAEIDAE 



The blenny tribes are characterized among Gulf 

 of Maine fishes by the position of their ventral 

 fins, which are under or in front of the pectorals, 

 combined with a single dorsal fin that is spiny 

 throughout its length and extends the whole 

 length of the trunk, and with a slender form, eel- 

 like in some of them. The only other Gulf of 

 Maine fishes that resemble them are the wolffishes 

 (p. 502) and the wrymouth (p. 500) , but both of these 

 lack ventral fins, which are present in all our blen- 

 nies, though they may be very small. Further- 

 more, the tremendous canine tusks and molar teeth 



of the wolffish (p. 503) have no counterpart among 

 the blennies, and the peculiar face of the wrymouth 

 is equally distinctive for it (p. 501). The eelpout 

 (Macro zoarces) also is somewhat blennylike in ap- 

 pearance, but the greater part of its dorsal fin is 

 soft rayed, not spiny; and its anal fin is continuous 

 with its caudal fin. 



The blennies are a numerous tribe of small 

 carnivorous shore fishes, widely distributed both 

 in northern and in tropical seas. Five species 

 are known in the Gulf of Maine. 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE BLENNY FISHES 



Body very slender, about 18-20 times as long as it is high Snake blenny, p. 494 



Body only moderately slender, not more than 8 to 10 times as long as it is high 2 



There is a row of conspicuous roundish black or dusky spots along the dorsal fin 3 



There is only one large and conspicuous dark spot on the dorsal fin, or none 4 



« Kept. TJ. S. Comm. Fish. (1879) 1882, pp. 808, 812, 814, 817. 

 « Cornish (Contrib. Canadian Biol. [1902-1905] 1907, p. 84.) 

 « Letm, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci.; vol. 20, Pt. 2, 1940, p. 39. 

 « Coi, Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1918-1920) 1921, p. 111. 



<• This specimen about 3 inches long, collected by C O. Iselin, now in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, appears to be a typical americanus, for it 

 has 30 anal fin rays, and only 69 dorsal rays. 



«' Vladykov, Contrib. Canadian Biol., N. Ser., vol. 8. No. 2, 1933, pp. 23-25. 



« Fowler, Rept. New Jersey State Mus. (1905) 1906, p. 411. 



» Jordan and Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., Pt. 1, 1896, p. 833. 



