1 04 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Sound, but more commonly only 1-4, if any, are captured. "^ All reports from farther 

 west and south have been based on only one or two individuals there, at long intervals. 

 Numbers such as these are not large enough to suggest the presence of a self-supporting 

 local stock. For this reason we believe that the center of population for T. nobUiana 

 lies farther out on the continental shelf (p. 103). 



It has been known for a long time that Torpedoes are encountered much more 

 frequently in some years than in others along the northeastern seaboard of the United 

 States. *3 Thus, it is said that Torpedoes were unusually abundant near Provincetown 

 during the period from 18 19 through the succeeding four or five years, with 60-80 

 taken there yearly. But according to reports, the catch for Cape Cod during the ten- 

 year period preceding i 845 did not exceed 30 in all.^* The next incursion of Torpedoes 

 near Provincetown appears to have taken place in 1845, with a dozen or so reported. 

 Any fluctuations that may have taken place from year to year thereafter seem to have 

 attracted no attention until the summer of 1896, when several were collected along 

 the coast of Maine. Within a short period during the summer of 1941, several were 

 taken at Cape Lookout, North Carolina, where only three specimens had been reported 

 in scientific literature previously (p. 105). It is not known whether these fluctuations 

 are reflections of corresponding variations in the strength of the offshore population 

 or are merely an indication of the chance distribution of individuals that come close 

 inshore from year to year. 



Relation to Man. At present the Torpedoes that are taken along the eastern sea- 

 board of the United States are of no commercial value. It is rumored that local fishermen 

 at an earlier date considered their oil a useful remedy for muscular cramps when applied 

 externally and for cramps of the stomach when taken internally.^^ We are informed^" 

 that small amounts were also used for lubricating farm machinery. The few specimens 

 that are landed at Woods Hole attract the attention of workers at the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory because of the electric organs and their discharges. 



Range. Both sides of the North Atlantic, from northern Scotland to the Mediter- 

 ranean, Azores, Madeira, and tropical West Africa" in the east; from southern Nova 

 Scotia, La Have Bank, mouth of the Bay of Fundy and Georges Bank to North Carolina 

 in the west; also reported from the Florida Keys and from Cuba.^* 



92. Captain Donald Campbell advises us that catches of 1-3 Torpedoes per day were made on 20 out of 50 days (33 

 fish) between June 16 and September 17, 1947 off the southeastern shore of Vineyard Sound in 30 feet of water 

 in a fish trap set with runner extending in toward shore to the 20-foot line. 



93. The most instructive information in this respect dates back many years. 



94. Storer, Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts Sci., N. S. 9, 1867: 245; also Fishes Mass., 1867: 271. 



95. Reports by Captain N. E. Atwood, in Storer (Amer. J. Sci., 45, 1843: 167). 



96. By Captain Donald Campbell. 



97. For tropical West African references, see Fowler (Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist., jo [i], 1936: 121; -jo [2], 1936: 

 1157) and Poll (Result. Sci. Exped. oceanogr. Beige Cot. Afr. Atlant. [1848-49], 1951: 79). The relationship of 

 T. nobiliana to the Torpedo reported under that specific name from the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope (Bar- 

 nard, Ann. S. Afr. Mus., 2/, 1925: 89, by ref. to Thompson [Mar. biol. Rep. Cape Town, 2, 1914: 159, as Tor- 

 pedo hebetans]; Smith, Sea Fish. S. Afr., 1949: 75) remains to be determined. 



98. It has been suggested (Dubois Reymond, Arch. Anat. Physiol., Leipzig [1882], Physiol. Abt., 1882: 400; Rep. 

 Brit. Ass., 1882: 594) that the large Torpedoes that are taken from time to time in British waters may be strays 

 that have drifted across from America in the Gulf Stream. We think it far more likely that the populations of 

 T. nobiliana in the two sides of the Atlantic are entirely independent of each other. 



