FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



515 



October or early November, whicb is corroborated 

 by a report of Clemens and Clemens, that set lines 

 made good catches in the Passamaquoddy region 

 from early June through September, but caught 

 none there from January to May. And their abun- 

 dance in Penobscot Bay in midsummer suggests 

 that some of them may perform a similar on and 

 offshore migration there, too. But this may not 

 apply to the coast south of Cape Elizabeth. Off 

 southern New England, where they are plentiful on 

 the commercial fishing grounds in winter and 

 spring, only stray ocean pouts are taken there in 

 summer and autumn. But it seems more likely 

 that they shift, then, to regions of rockier bottom 

 nearby, than that they move off-shore. 63 



It is not yet clear to what extent their move- 

 ments depend on the local food supply, on seasonal 

 changes in temperature, or on the habit the mature 

 fish have of congregating on rocky grounds during 

 the spawning season, and while guarding the eggs 

 thereafter (p. 513). One must also bear in mind 

 that failure to catch them on hook and line may 

 simply mean that they are not biting at the time, 

 not necessarily that they have moved away. This 

 is likely to apply to the adult fish in particular 

 during their spawning and egg-guarding season. 



Importance. — -Although the ocean pout has few 

 bones and is said to be a sweet-meated fish, there 

 was no regular market for it prior to the early 

 1930's; only a few, brought in by small boats, were 

 sold on the streets of Boston, and nearly all of those 

 that were caught incidentally by the larger vessels 

 were thrown overboard. A small demand then de- 

 veloped for them resulting in landings for Massa- 

 chusetts ranging between 45,600 pounds and 



114,700 pounds yearly, for the period 1935 to 

 1942, 64 though none for Maine. 



A concerted attempt was made in 1943 to 

 market ocean pout as fillets, partly as a war 

 measure. This was so successful that 3,943,300 

 pounds were reported as landed in Massachusetts 

 ports in that year; 4,449,600 pounds in 1944, most 

 of them caught from the tip of Cape Cod south- 

 ward, and nearly all of them marketed through 

 New York. But this popularity was short lived, 

 for word soon spread that ocean pout are often 

 afflicted with a protozoan paraeite. Many ship- 

 ments were condemned for this cause, and the 

 demand fell off so rapidly that the landings for 

 Massachusetts were less than one-fourth as great 

 in 1945 (1,003,700 pounds) as they had been in 

 1944 «; fell to 613,300 pounds in 1946; were 167,400 

 pounds in 1947; and dropped to 6,100 pounds in 

 1948, the most recent year for which statistics of 

 the catch are available. 



Wolf eel Lycenchelys verrillii (Goode and Bean) 



1877. 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2470. 



Description. — This fish is eel-like in form and 

 resembles the ocean pout in most other respects 

 as well, except that it is more slender (about 14 

 to 16 times as long as it is deep), and that there is 

 no separation, apparent or real, between its dorsal, 

 caudal, and anal fins, but the three form a single 

 continuous vertical fin running along the back, 

 around the tail, and forward on the lower surface 

 to the vent. The dorsal fin not only originates 



•> For discussion, see Olsen and Merriman, Bull. Bingham Oceanogr. 

 Coll. vol. 9, art. 4, 1946, pp. 40-42. 



•* Landings (or 1933 to 1940 were listed as "conger eels"; no data are avail- 

 able for 1934 or 1936. 



M For a detailed history of the event, see Olsen and Merriman, Bull. Bing- 

 ham Oceanogr. Coll., vol. 9, art. 4, 1946, pp. 9-10. 



Figure 271. — Wolf eel (Lycenchelys verrillii), off Chebucto, Nova Scotia. From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by 



H. L. Todd. 



