500 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



General range. — So far this fish is known only 

 off the boreal coasts of eastern North America, 

 from eastern Newfoundland, the north shore of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 82 and from northern 

 Nova Scotia to Nantucket Shoals and southern 

 Massachusetts. 83 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This shanny, 

 first described by Storer from a specimen found at 

 an unusually low tide among the seaweed at 

 Nahant on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay 

 in 1838, was long supposed to be rare. But it has 

 proved to be common in the Bay of Fundy 84 among 

 seaweed on rocky shores, a number having been 

 taken both at Campobello Island and at Grand 

 Manan, and one in the mouth of the St. Croix 

 River, while the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 has a specimen from Grand Manan, collected by 

 Verrill many years ago. Huntsman also reports 

 it from St. Mary Bay on the Nova Scotia shore, 



and we have found several in the tide pools at 

 Nahant, on the northern shore of Massachusetts 

 Bay. Offshore, we have trawled it near Seguin 

 Island; in Massachusetts Bay; also on the eastern 

 part of Georges Bank. And we have found so 

 many in the stomachs of cod caught on Nantucket 

 Shoals, on Cashes Ledge, and on other offshore 

 grounds as to show that it is widespread in the 

 Gulf on hard bottom, from the shore down to at 

 least 30 fathoms, while we have had one from as 

 deep as 45 fathoms. Our tow nets also have taken 

 its pelagic larvae near Seal Island (Nova Scotia) ; 

 in the Grand Manan Channel; at the mouth of 

 Casco Bay; near Cape Porpoise; off the Isles of 

 Shoals; near Cape Ann ; and in Massachusetts Bay. 

 The only importance of this little fish in the 

 natural economy of our Gulf is that many of them 

 are eaten by cod and by other fishes. 



THE WRYMOUTHS. FAMILY CRYPTACANTHODIDAE 



The wrymouths are slender, eel-like fishes, 

 close relatives of the blennies but much larger. 

 Like the blennies they have a long dorsal fin that 

 is spiny throughout its length, but the demarcation 

 between dorsal, caudal, and anal fins is so vague 

 that they can be described as practically contin- 

 uous. They have no ventral fins, and their mouth 

 is so strongly oblique that it is nearly vertical. 



" Reparted from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland (Rept. Newfoundland 

 Fishery Research Comm., vol. 1, No. 4, 1932, p. 109, Sta. 39), and from 

 Canso, Nova Scotia, by Comish (Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1902-1905) 1907, 

 p.. 87. And Dr. Vladykov writes us that he has collected a specimen at 

 Pointe du Maurier on the noi th shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



» Sumner, Osburn, and Cole (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 31, Pt. 2, 1913, 

 p. 768) record 4 living specimens from Vineyard Sound and others found 

 in the stomach of a sheldrake (Merganser) that was shot near Robinson 

 Hole in the Woods Hole region. 



M Huntsman, Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1921) 1922. p. 66, and unpublished 

 notes. 



Only three species are known, all North American, 

 of which the Gulf of Maine harbors one. 



Wrymouth Cryptacanthodes maculatus Storer 1839 



Congo eel; Bastard cusk; Ghostfish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2443. 



Description. — The wrymouth is eel-like in form, 

 about thirteen times as long as it is deep but much 

 flattened sidewise, and (eel-like) it lacks ventral 

 fins. And (as in the eel) there is no definite 

 demarcation between dorsal fin and the caudal fin 

 or between the anal fin (about 47 to 50 rays) and 

 the caudal, the one merging into the other to form 

 a continuous fin around the tail, with no inter- 







Figure 264. — Wrymouth (Cryptacanthodes maculatus). From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



