FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



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erect, whence the common name of the fish. The 

 soft dorsal fin (27 rays) is separated from the first 

 by a considerable interspace, is rhomboid in out- 

 line with the third or fourth ray longest, and 

 tapers back to the base of the caudal peduncle. 

 The anal fin (25 rays) corresponds to the soft 

 dorsal in outline and in location. The caudal fin 

 is of moderate size, its rear margin moderately 

 concave, in a very characteristic curve, with 

 sharp pointed, somewhat prolonged corners. The 

 pectorals are short, rounded, and situated below the 

 gill openings. The ventrals are reduced to one 

 short, stout, blunt spine, mostly embedded in the 

 skin and they are connected with the general out- 

 line of the abdomen by a sort of dewlap. 



Color. — The colors of this triggerfish vary 

 widely. A specimen 2 inches long recently taken 

 on Georges Bank was yellowish, with many small 

 blue-violet spots on the sides, dusky-blotched 

 along the back, and with one broad, irregular 

 dusky band extending from the base of the dorsal 

 fin almost to the anal. The caudal fin was pale 

 yellow. Other examples have been described as 

 olive gray, marked with violet dots and with dark 

 crossbars, the fins as variously tinted with yellow, 

 blue, and olive. 



Size. — Said to reach a weight of 4 pounds, but 

 they average only about 1 pound. 



General range. — Both sides of the tropical At- 

 lantic, also the Mediterranean; straying north to 

 Ireland on the European coast; to the outer coast 

 of Nova Scotia, in the vicinity of Cape Canso 87 on 

 the American side. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Only one speci- 

 men of this tropical fish, taken in the Squam River 

 at Annisquam, near Gloucester, Mass., many 

 years ago, 88 had been reported from the Gulf of 

 Maine previous to 1925. But it must drift in over 

 the offshore rim of the Gulf more often than had 

 been suspected, for two small fry of 2 to 3 inches 

 were picked up on the northeast part of Georges 

 Bank among Gulf weed (Sargassum) from the 

 Albatross II, in mid-September 1927; a large one 

 about 15 inches long was gaffed at the surface 

 from the fishing schooner Huntington Sanford 14 

 miles southeasterly from Highland Light, Cape 

 Cod, on July 19, 1929; 89 one, now in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, was picked up at Ply- 

 mouth, Mass., on September 5, 1932, by the late 

 C. L. Hauthaway, a well-known angler and a close 

 observer. 90 One was reported from Casco Bay, 

 (Small Point), Maine, in 1949, and one near 

 Boothbay Harbor (Linekin Bay), also in 1949. 91 



THE FILEFISHES. FAMILY MONACANTHIDAE 



The filefishes recall the triggerfishes in their gen- 

 eral form, being similarly deep and flattened 

 sidewise, with the same peculiar profiles, small 

 terminal mouths, projecting incisor teeth, eyes set 

 high up, very stout dorsal spines, and short gill 

 openings; also in the fact that the ventral fins are 

 either lacking altogether or at least are reduced to 

 a single short blunt movable spine at the end of 

 the very long pelvic bone, forming a keel-like 

 continuation of the general ventral profile of the 

 head and connected with that of the belly by a 

 dewlap of skin. The filefishes differ from trigger- 

 fishes in having only one dorsal spine instead of 

 three, and in the fact that their scales are so minute 

 that the skin is velvety to the touch although very 



tough. Most of the species are tropical or sub- 

 tropical, and none has any commercial or sporting 

 value. Adults of the four species known from the 

 Gulf of Maine are separable as follows: 



17 Nova Scotian records are from Halifax and from Queensport near Cap© 

 Canso (Vladykov, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 19, 1935, p. 9; McKenzie 

 Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 20, 1939, p. 18); also 24 miles southeasterly 

 from Sable Island, where one was picked up by the schooner Wanderer, July 

 5, 1931 (Firth, Bull. 61, Boston Soc. Natural History, 1931, p. 13). 



88 This specimen is now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



81 Reported by Firth, Bull. No. 61, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1931, p. 12. 



" Another species of trigger fish (Batistes netuia) is more common than 

 carolinensis at Woods Hole, and is recorded from Nantucket, but it has not 

 been taken in the Gulf of Maine as yet. It is separable from carolinensis by 

 the fact that the forward rays of its soft dorsal fin and the corners of its caudal 

 fin are elongated and filamentous; also by the presence of two blue bars on 

 each side of its head. 



•' These last two fish were reported by Scattergood, Trefethen, and Coffin , 

 Copeia, 1951, No. 4, p. 298). 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE FILEFISHES 



There is a prominent external ventral spine; the gill openings are nearly vertical. 

 There is no external ventral spine; the gill openings are very oblique 



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