(1944). The-principal foods were fish, ech- 

 inoderms, moUusks, and annelids . The work 

 by Homans and Needier (loc cit.) is the most 

 complete food habit study of haddock from 

 North American waters. Specimens from the 

 coastal waters of Maine were found by Atwood 

 (1865) and Kendall (1898) to feed chiefly on 

 brittle- stars, sea urchins, andmollusks. 

 From haddock taken in coastal waters of 

 southern New England, Verrill (1871, 1873 = 

 Baird 1889) reported moliusks, echinoderms, 

 crustaceans, and annelids . 



of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, known as 

 Georges Bank. Most of the samples were 

 taken from the northern and eastern parts 

 of the bank, which are the areas most heavily 

 fished by the commercial haddock-fishing 

 fleet . The location at which each collection 

 was made is plotted on the chart shown in 

 figure 1 . Specific information concerning 

 each collection is listed m table 1 . All 

 specimens were collected with standard otter 

 trawl gear operated from commercial fishing 

 trawlers and the research vessel Albatross lU. 



Bigelow and Schroeder (1953), in refer- 

 ence to haddock inhabiting the Gulf of Maine 

 (Georges Bank included), state that large 

 crustaceans, a great variety of gastropods 

 and bivalve moliusks, worms, starfish, sea 

 urchins, sand dollars, brittle -stars, and sea 

 cucumbers all enter regularly into the had- 

 dock's dietary, Homans and Needier (1944) 

 examined 179 small (10 - 30 centimeters) 

 haddock from Georges Bank. The stomach 

 contents consisted entirely of the shell-less 

 gastropod Aeolis papillosa Stomach contents 

 of 1, 500 haddock, also taken fiom Georges 

 Bank, were examined by Clapp (1912) . Sixty- 

 eight species of moliusks are the only items 

 listed. Clapp also observed that in certain 

 parts of the noithwest portion of Georges 

 Bank the haddock feed heavily upon annelid 

 worms o 



It is apparent from the foregoing litera- 

 ture review that a comprehensive study of 

 the food habits of haddock from Georges Bank - 

 one of the greatest haddock producing areas 

 in the world - has never been undertaken . It 

 is the purpose of the present report to record 

 the kinds of orgamsms Georges Bank haddock 

 prey upon and, more specifically, to evalu- 

 ate the relative importance of various groups 

 of organisms in the dietary. 



METHODS 



This study was geographically restricted 

 to that portion of the continental shelf east 



This report is based upon the content 

 analysis of 1, 287 haddock stomachs from 38 

 collections taken during the 1 1 -month period 

 April 1953 to February 1954. An attempt 

 was made to collect stomachs regularly 

 throughout the year . However, samples are 

 lacking for August and November because 

 commercial fishing"within the study area was 

 too light to afford an opportunity to obtain 

 samples . 



Haddock utilized m this study ranged in 

 size from 14 to 75 centimeters In length. The 

 length -frequency distribution of these fish is 

 listed in table 2 . Most of the specimens were 

 between 30 and 75 centimeters, which is the 

 same size range of haddock captured by com- 

 mercial trawlers . Inasmuch as the smaller 

 specimens, those between 14 and 30 centi- 

 meters, were not commonly caught by 

 standard gear, few specimens within that 

 size range are represented. 



Because detailed analysis of the stomach 

 contents was required, the stomachs were 

 collected at sea and brought to the laboratory 

 for examination . Aboard ship, stomachs 

 were removed from haddock and placed in a 

 plastic bag containing 10 percent formalin. 

 All stomachs from one collection were placed 

 in the same container , A label bearing the 

 date, location, water depth, time of capture, 

 and cruise number was attached to the con- 

 tainer . Since the procedure for collecting 

 stomachs from haddock on commercial vessels 



