to be young- of the year. In 1962, the 0- 

 group fish appeared in catclies in early 

 July at lengths of 17 to 27 mm. and were 

 present through November. Gunners 

 caught from late March thi-ough June in 

 1962 probably were 1-group fish; how- 

 ever, from July to early September fish 

 older than 1-group also appeared to be 

 present (table 11). 



Tautoga onitis (Linnaeus), tautog. 



Tautog, 26 to 375 mm. long, were caught 

 in September to early December 1961 and 

 in late March to early November 1962 

 (table 12, fig. 3). This species spawns 

 chiefly in June in the Woods Hole area 

 (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953), and the 

 fish 41 to 74 mm. long in 1961 were judged 

 to be young of the year on the basis of 

 growth data for age-grouii 1 and older 

 given by Cooper (1967). In 1962, speci- 

 mens 26 to 43 nmi. long began appearing 

 in catches in August and were present 

 until early November. These small fish 

 apparently also were of age-group (i. 



Godiidae — gobies 



Gobiosonw ginsbiii-fii Ilildebrand and Schroe- 

 der, seaboard goby. 



Four seaboard gobies were caught: one 

 each in November and December 1961 and 

 two in October 1962. The lengths were 

 39, 41, 44, and 45 mm. (U.S. National 

 Museum catalog numbers for the last 

 three: US204319, US204320. US204322) . 



This species has not been previously re- 

 ported for the Woods Hole area. It was 

 not described as a species separate from 

 the naked goby {G. bosci) until 1928 

 (Hildebrand and Schroeder, 1928), how- 

 ever, and since the naked goby has been 

 mentioned as common in the summer near 

 Woods Hole (Sumner, et al., 1913) it 

 seems likely that seaboard gobies were 

 caught there also in the past and identi- 

 fied as naked gobies. 



Triglidae — searobins 



PriotuAus curoliHHs (Linnaeus), northern 

 searobin. 



Table 12. — Numbers and lengths of tautog caught with 

 ail otter trawl near Woods Hole, Mass., September 

 1961 to December 1962. (Tautog were caught only 

 in the semimonthly periods shown.) 



1962 



Mar. 16-31 __ .. .. 2 48 42-53 



May 16-31 ._ __ __ 2 167 61-273 



June 1-15 __ __ -_ 4 147 64-365 



June 16-30 __ _. _. 2 85 75-95 



July 1-15 ._ ._ -_ 8 108 65-190 



July 16-31 __ ._ — 9 139 88-265 



-Aug. 1-15 2 34 26-43 7 132 86-163 



Aug. 16-31 4 46 35-58 10 112 93-153 



Sept. 1-15 2 46 41-51 18 160 88-353 



Sept. 16-30 2 56 46-65 6 134 98-211 



Oct. 1-15 .- __ -_ 4 178 100-375 



Oct. 16-31 2 69 68-70 1 178 



Nov. 1-15 1 33 



Nov. 16-30 __ -- .- 1 96 -. 



' Assumed to be young of the year on the basis of 

 data given by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953), Cooper 

 (1967), and by the seasonal progression of length 

 frequency distributions in the 1961-62 fish. 



Searobins were caught from September 

 through November in 1961 and from late 

 July through October in 1962 (table 13, 

 fig. 3). All were 0-group fish except for 

 a few larger individuals in catches dur- 

 ing the summer of 1962. The young fish 

 first appeared in July and early August 

 at lengths of 33 to 42 mm. This may 

 approximate the size when the pelagic 

 phase ends. These young fish had reached 

 an average length of 68 mm. by the end 

 of October. 



The searobins disappeared from catches 

 in October and November. They a]ipar- 

 ently left tiie area in response to the rapid 



10 



