PEOGEESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIEIES 47 



practically confined to the Woods Hole region. Valuable material 

 and data have been received in connection with the study of the 

 early history of the cod, pollock, and haddock, mentioned above. 

 Other data have been secured in the region about Woods Hole as a 

 result of the collections made during the past summei- with seines and 

 young-fish trawls. The general nature of this work was outlined 

 in the report of the division for the fiscal year 1924. 



TROPICAL FISHES OF THE WOODS HOLE UEGION' 



In June, 1924, a study of the tropical and subtropical fishes that 

 visit the shores of New England in summer, often in considerable 

 numbers, was begun by Marie D. P. Fish. The materials were 

 obtained from the following sources : 



1. A series of collections made at Katama Bay on the seaward 

 side of Marthas Vineyard in 1924. The collecting was done by 

 means of a 150-foot shore seine and a Petersen young-fish trawl 

 towed through the Zostera zone lining the shore. 



2. All previous collections and records from the Woods Hole 

 region, including those at the station and those in the National 

 Museum. 



3. All tropical fishes taken in the surface collections along the 

 Atlantic coast b}^ the AJhat/^oss, Gra7)ipus, Fish Haick. and Bache. 



The influence of temperature and winds upon the local appearance 

 of southern forms has been most strikingly demonstrated during the 

 past three years. In the summer and fall of 1922, when the tempera- 

 ture ranged below normal and southerly winds did not prevail, sein- 

 ings in Katama Bay and elsewhere about Woods Hole yielded no 

 small tropical or subtropical fishes. A few large specimens, how- 

 ever, were caught in the fish traps in the vicinity — wanderers hardy 

 enough to have withstood the drop in temperature as the}^ made their 

 way into the colder waters. In 1923 conditions were similar. With 

 the exception of a few large sharks and rays and a nuijiber of lady- 

 fish (Alhula vul'pes) on October 22, no southern ranging fislies were 

 found. No Sargassum weed was to be seen anywhere about. During 

 the past summer, however, the search for these stragglers from the 

 Gulf Stream was well rewarded. Between the middle of July and 

 the end of October,' 13 species of fishes having a distinctly southern 

 range were seined in Katama Bay, 4 of them in abundance. For 

 the first time in the history of local fisheries the yellow crevalle 

 (Carangus ci'ysos) was so abundant in the traps of Buzzards Bay 

 and Vineyard Sound that several barrels of them were shipped to 

 the Boston market. Two specimens of Carangus hifus, a crevalle 

 never before recorded north of Virginia and which is most common 

 about the West Indies, were seined in Katama Bay on September 9 

 and 12. The absence of young southern fishes at Woods Hole in 

 1922 and 1923 and their abundance in 1924 apparently were due to 

 the much higher temperatuje existing during the past year as well 

 as to the great predominance of southwest winds. Mnemiopsis 

 leidyl., reliable indicator of a drift from the south, was every ^vhere; 

 abundant in local Avaters throughout August and September, 1924',, 

 but did not appear during the two previous years. 



All records seem to shoAv that the date of appearance of the 

 tropical and subtropical fish is dependent upon the temperature 



