FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 331 



In 1931, another large fish was caught, 644 pounds in weight, dressed, 13 feet in 

 length, with a sword measuring 3 feet 8 inches. 



Young swordfish are so rarely reported off the New England coast that it is of 

 interest to record the capture of a 2-foot fish, weighing 7% pounds, taken by the 

 Dacia on a trawl line September 2, 1931, on Georges Bank. 



Pilotfish, Naucrates ductor (Linnaeus) 



Up to 1925 only three definite records for the Gulf of Maine had come to hand. 

 Since then we have learned of the capture of six more pilotfish, off Portland, in Pro- 

 vincetown Harbor, to the southeast of Cape Cod, and on the northern edge of Georges 

 Bank, during the summer and fall months in the years 1921, 1924, 1929, 1931, and 

 1933. Vladykov (1935, p. 6) reports two specimens from Sable Island Bank and 

 one from Sambro, off Nova Scotia, in the period 1932-34. 



Rudderfish, Seriola zonata (Mitchill) 



The known range of the rudderfish has been extended northward to Halifax, 

 Nova Scotia (Leim, 1930, p. xlvi, as S. dumerili). 



One fish was caught on a smelt hook off a Portland wharf in September 1921; a 

 5K-inch fish was taken off Boston in September 1929; another, 17K inches long, from 

 South Channel the same month; and a 6-inch specimen on Nantucket Shoals in 

 August 1930. 



Mackerel scad, Decapterus rnacarellus (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



One specimen, 7 inches long, was taken in a trap at Richmond Island, off Cape 

 Elizabeth, in September 1931, this being only the second recorded for the Gulf of 

 Maine. 



Saurel, Trachurus trachurus (Linnaeus) 



One specimen of this fish, rare to the northward of Woods Hole, Mass., was 

 taken in Casco Bay on August 12 and another near Castine Bay, Maine, on October 

 15, 1930 (Kendall, 1931, p. 11). 



Big-eyed scad, Trachurops crumenopthalma (Bloch) 



Two specimens, recently taken off Cape Cod, one at Provincetown, the other 

 about 8 miles off the beach at Chatham, are the only positive records of this species 

 for the Gulf of Maine. As it is caught from time to time, however, in the summer and 

 fall as far northward as Woods Hole, it may be expected to round the cape occasion- 

 ally. This scad has been recorded from Canso, Nova Scotia by Cornish (1907, 

 p. 85). 



Hardtail, Caranx hippos (Linnaeus) 



A hardtail taken off Provincetown in 1933 is the second reported from the Gulf 

 of Maine. Several specimens about 2 inches long were taken the summer of 1933 in 

 Musquodoboit Harbor, Nova Scotia (Vladykov, 1935, p. 4). 



Hardtail, Caranx crysos (Mitchill) 

 One fish was taken off Chatham in 1933. 



