[huntsman] fishes OF THE CANADIAN ATLANTIC COAST 



65 



Mackerel 



Herrinu 



Hake 



Haddock 



Pollock 



Cod 



Campbobello to Red Head 



Pollet's Cove to Broad 



Cove Chapel 



17,165 



121,790 



3,741 



58,520 



678 



13,575 



1,212 



37,815 



144 



5 , 806 



26,766 



From the available evidence it is practically certain that of these 

 fishes the herring alone is able to breed successfully in the bay of Fundy 

 at least in the Passamaquoddy region, but all of them, with the pos- 

 sible exception of the pollock, breed successfully in the gulf of St. 

 Lawrence in the Cheticamp region. As these fishes are all migratory, 

 their failure to breed in the bay of Fundy does not exclude them from 

 that region, but may influence their distribution within it, depending 

 upon the nature of their migratory habits. The extraordinary rarity 

 in the bay of Fundy of the larvae of fishes with pelagic eggs, such as 

 the plaice, sole, cod, haddock, hake, pollock, and cunner is evidence 

 of the entire unsuitability of that region as a breeding ground for such 

 fishes. The reason for this appears to be the unusual physical con- 

 ditions of the water, which are connected with the virtual absence of 

 stratification. Most floating eggs remain in the uppermost layers, 

 which, as in the gulf of St. Lawrence, are usually of low salinity and 

 of high summer temperatures. In any event the eggs can reach in 

 such waters the layers that are the most suitable for them and the 

 same obtains for the young larvae. This is not possible in the bay 

 of Fundy. Although that region is so unsuitable for them during 

 their embryonic and larval stages, young haddock, hake, pollock, 

 and cod of a year or more in age can and do live in the bay of Fundy. 

 Their migration to all parts presents therefore neither difficulty nor 

 peculiarity, for they will be generally distributed, where conditions 

 are favorable. It is otherwise with the mackerel, the young of which 

 are probably able neither to enter the bay nor to thrive there. The 

 adults are very abundant at the southern end of Nova Scotia, but 

 their numbers, as shown by the statistics of landings, diminish rather 

 rapidly as we pass northwards along the coast of Nova Scotia up the 

 bay of Fundy to its head in the Minas basin, while on the New Bruns- 

 wick coast they rarely appear. This indicates a limited coastal 

 migration into the bay of Fundy from a centre off Yarmouth, N.S. 



The halibut, which of a certainty migrates shorewards from the 

 outer fishing banks, has a somewhat similar distribution, indicating 



1 In addition 63,020 barrels of sardines or young herring. These statistics have 

 been taken from the latest available report of the fisheries branch of the Department 

 of the Naval Service, Ottawa. 



Sec. IV, Sig, 5 



