Figure 4.— Chartered otter trawler Metacomet used for 1956 Maine exploratory herring fishing. 



were again found inhabiting the bottom layers 

 in the deeper areas of the inside waters at 

 the time. Echo-sounding recordings showed 

 fish lying near the bottom in some of the 

 areas where herring were caught in the otter 

 trawl. 



COASTAL GILL NET FISHING 



During June, July, and August 1956, on 

 Cruise Nos. 3, 4 and 5 of the chartered ves- 

 sel Metacomet (figs. 4 and 5), sets of anchored 

 and drifting gill nets were made along the 

 Maine coast from the Isle auHautto Passama- 

 quoddy Bay during a period when sardines 

 were scarce in that area. Although 48 individual 

 sets of gill nets, varying in length from 

 50 to 250 fathoms, were made, only a very 

 few herring were taken, the largest catch being 

 of 22 herring averaging 8.3 inches in standard 



length that were caught in 100 fathoms of net 

 set 2 fathoms below the surface on August 1, 

 1956, and drifted overnight at a position 

 starting 3.25 miles northwest of Matinicus 

 Island. Twenty herring were caught in St. 

 Andrews Bay on June 16 with 50 fathoms of 

 gill nets set on the bottom, and 19 herring 

 were taken from a similar set in Machias Bay 

 on June 19. A scattering of herring catches 

 with only a few individual fish per set were 

 taken in 18 of the 48 sets made during this 

 period. (A complete log of 1956 gill net sets 

 is contained in Smith (1957)),* Thus, a very 

 sparse scattering of unschooled herring ap- 

 peared to be present in coastal waters between 

 the coastline and 15 miles offshore in the 

 summer of 1956. 



' Keith A. Smith. Maine herring explorations and 

 fishing gear experiments. US. Fish and Wildlife Serv- 

 ice, Commercial Fisheries Review, vol. 19 (1957), 

 no. 9. p. 1-15. 



