FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 329 



Pelagic pipefish, Syngnathus pelagicus Linnaeus 



A single specimen 3% inches long, taken on Georges Bank (lat. 42°09' N., long. 

 66°41' W.) September 20, 1927, by the Albatross II, is the only Gulf of Maine record. 

 This specimen was dipped up with a mass of gulf weed (Sargassum) and was the only 

 one found in a large amount of weed tbat was examined. 



Common pipefish, Syngnathus juscus Storer 



Pipefish are rarely taken on bottom far from the immediate shore waters, hence 

 it is of interest to report the capture of four specimens 4% to 6 inches long at a depth 

 of 19 fathoms 10 miles south of No Mans Land, February 5, 1930. 



Northern barracuda, Sphyraena borealis DeKay 



A specimen about 2 inches long found alive in the surf at Nauset Beach, Cape 

 Cod, September 26, 1930, by Dr. Edward P. Kichardson, is the only record thus far 

 reported for the Gulf of Maine. Young fry, a few inches long, are taken, however, 

 from time to time in the region of Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay on the southern 

 coast of New England, from July to December. 



Mackerel, Scomber scombrus Linnaeus 



The body length of the mackerel is erroneously given as about three and one-half 

 times the depth by Bigelow and Welsh (1925, p. 188); actually, it is four to five and 

 one-half times the depth. 



A small mackerel taken at Cape Lookout, N. C, in February 1925 (Coles, 1926, 

 p. 105), extends the known range southward beyond Cape Hatteras. 



Recent captures of a mackerel weighing 7}i pounds, 5 and of another of 7% pounds, 

 26 inches long, both of which we, ourselves, examined, shows that occasional giants 

 occur, for the weight seldom exceeds 4 pounds or the length 22 inches. 



Tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus) 



Larger catches of tuna have been made within the Gulf of Maine in recent years 

 partly, at least, because of an increased market demand for the fish. Thus, compared 

 with the 69,868 pounds recorded for Massachusetts and Maine in 1919, the catch of 

 1934 amounted to 356,904 pounds, of which 254,076 pounds came from Cape Cod. 

 The Nova Scotian shore of the Gulf of Maine yielded about 24,000 pounds in 1924 

 and 10,000 pounds in 1929. At present the annual catch for the gulf is probably 

 between 300,000 and 400,000 pounds. Assuming an average weight of 300 pounds 

 (probably too little, for the average weight of about 90 tuna caught off the coast of 

 Maine in 1926 was about 540 pounds), this would represent a thousand or more fish. 

 Off the outer coast of Nova Scotia, where tuna have been taken in larger numbers 

 than within the Gulf of Maine, the annual catches from 1917 to 1933 have fluctuated 

 between 152,000 and 1,550,000 pounds. 



The heaviest New England fish on record, taken off Rhode Island about 1913, 

 weighed 1,225 pounds, while four or five fish have been brought into Boston that 

 weighed approximately 1,200 pounds. Another fish weighing 1,300 pounds was 

 shipped in 1924 from Nova Scotia to Boston (Sella, 1931, p. 61). 



' Atlantic Fisherman, August 1925. 



