PACIFIC HALIBUT FISHERIES 7 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a 



The wasteful destruction of red cod and their unborn fry, which is incidental to 

 the halibut fishery, is enormous and reacts upon the latter to this extent, that halibut 

 and ling cod feed upon the red cod, and both are considered superior to the latter on 

 the local markets. But, as already mentioned, the red cod itself is an excellent table 

 fish, particularly after having been split and salted. Jordan and Evermann also state 

 that this species is abundant from San Diego to Puget sound, and is an important 

 food fish. Of five red cod from Hecate strait examined on May 26, one was a spawn- 

 ing female with loose egg-embryos in the ovaries, the others were spent males. 

 Throughout the summer the males exceeded the females in number and size, the exact 

 converse being true of the halibut. 



The viviparous perches or Embiotocidae, to which reference has been made, are 

 shore-frequenting fishes, and their viviparity is quite distinct from that of the rock- 

 fishes or Scorpaenidae. In these we find intraovarian incubation of pelagic eggs, 

 whereas in the perches we have an example of the intraovarian incubation of demer- 

 sal eggs. This difference is of great interest and bears indirectly upon the problem 

 of the spawning of the halibut which inhabits the same waters as the red cod and 

 possibly produces bathypelagic eggs. On the other hand, it is well known that the 

 ling cod deposits huge clumps of demersal eggs inshore. Dr. C. McLean Eraser 

 informed me that he had found the egg-masses on the rocks near the Biological 

 Station, Nanaimo. 



Near midnight on May 21 the anchor was dropped in 18 fathoms in Tassoo 

 harbour, on the west coast of Moresby island, an extensive inlet with a narrow 

 entrance difficult to negotiate on a dark night. On entering it we were assailed with 

 a delicate pine-scented land breeze and greeted by a great chorus of gulls, s me of 

 which were nesting and had just laid their eggs on a rocky islet in the harbour. The 

 depth descends to TO fathoms, and as it was too rough on the following day to fish 

 outside, a set was made at 20 to 40 fathoms in the calm water of the lagoon. The 

 result was not encouraging, but two of the halibut were of large size, 4 feet and 5 

 feet long. I went out in one of the dories and hitched a pelagic tow-net on to the 

 buoy-line 3 or 4 fathoms above the anchor in 23 fathoms. Besides the usual comple- 

 ment of Medusae, Ctenophores, and Siphonophores, one young fish was qaught. The 

 hooks, baited as usual with herring which had been frozen, brought up ling cod, red 

 cod, rock cod (Sehastodes caurinus), halibut, starfishes, sea-lilies, and sea-anemones. 

 The total number of fish captured was small, jand it may be stated, as a general rule, 

 that the inlets and inside channels, despite their great depths, are not suitable for 

 halibut life and propagation. Near the shore at the head of Tassoo harbour there 

 were numerous egg-ribbons of the giant-whelk and a luxuriant growth of eel-grass 

 covered with hydroids which were subsequently identified by Dr. C. M. Eraser as 

 Ohelia longissima, very common also on the piles of the wharf at the Biological 

 Station. 



Shortly after noon on May 22 we left Tassoo harbour and sailed south before 

 the wind, which was blowing harder than ever from the northwest. It was said th^t 

 the rough weather we experienced was unusual at this time of the year. At five 

 o'clock we arrived off the mouth of another large inlet, with a string of low rocks 

 stretching far across from each point, not named on the chart. It lies south of the 

 S^n Christoval mountains on Moresby island, opposite to Juan Perez sound. Here 

 we sounded in 320 and 90 fathoms, within a mile of the shore, and put into the inlet 

 for the night. In the evening I rowed round a point of land with the skipper and 

 siaw quantities of small Crustacea, calanoid copepods, which he recognized at once 

 with his Norwegian experience as " herring feed." They were rising to the surface 

 amongst the kelp, one by one, then swimming round in spirals, clockwise, causing 

 distinct widening ripples at the surface. The same species formed an important con- 

 stituent of the outside plankton. They may be regarded as forging a link in the 

 chain of metabolism which culminates in the life of the halibut, inasmuch as they 

 subsist upon a vegetable diet (.algae), herrings feed upon them, octopus and rockfish 



