ZOOLOGICAL SOCIET 



BULLETIN 



Published by the New York Zoological Society 



Vol. XVII 



NOVEMBER, 15)11 



Number fi 



BIOLOCilCAL INVESTK;ATI()NS in long ISLAND SOUND 



DURING the latter jjart of June and the 

 early part of July tiie United States 

 Bureau of Fisheries undertook a series of 

 dredgings in I^ong Island Sound with a view to 

 ascertaining the cliaracter and abundance of 

 the animal life on the bottom. The Fisheries 

 Steamer "Fish Hawk" was detailed for the pur- 

 pose and ran lines of dredgings east and west. 

 lowering a large beam trawl at frequent inter- 

 vals. Surface and bottom observations on the 

 temperature and salinity of the water were 

 recorded with special instruments at each dredg- 

 ing station occupied by the vessel. 



Such work had never been done in the west- 

 ern part of the Sound and it was believed that 

 great quantities of animal life would be brought 

 up. The collections made consisted largely of 

 crustaceans, mollusks and starfishes, but many 

 kinds of invertebrate animals were obtained to- 

 gether with bottom inhabiting fishes, such as 

 flounders and sculpins. 



The bulk of the collections were landed from 

 time to time at the biological laboratory at 

 Cold Spring Harbor for study. The details of 

 the work were arranged for the Bureau of 

 Fisheries by Dr. Charles B. Davenport. Direc- 

 tor of the Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor 

 and by Dr. C. H. Townsend, Director of the 

 Aquarium in New York. By direction of the 

 Bureau, Dr. Townsend had personal charge of 

 the work of the vessel and was granted leave 

 of absence by the New York Zoological Society 

 for that purpose. The Fish Hawk is a vessel 

 about 160 feet in length and carries a naval 

 crew of i3 men. She is used mainly for coast- 

 wise investigations of fishing grounds. 



The use of the large beam trawl revealed 

 spots where flounders could be taken for market 

 bv trawling vessels. 



Long Island Sound yields a good supply of 

 food fishes, most of which are dependent upon 

 the abundance of small invertebrate forms for 

 food. There are large numbers of edible crabs 

 in the shoaler portions as well as oysters, clams 

 and mussels. 



Seventy hauls of the beam trawl were made 

 in depths varying from five to twenty-five 

 fathoms. Very few hauls were made near shore 

 as both sides of the Sound are occupied by 

 wide fringes of staked and cultivated oyster 

 beds, the dredgings were in the deeper waters 

 lying between them. 



The character of the contents of the trawl 

 in most of these hauls was monotonously simi- 

 lar. There were usually three species of 

 flounders, some skates, mutton fish, young whit- 

 ing, hake, herring and a few butter fish and 

 cunners. Among the invertebrates were num- 

 erous sjiider crabs, rock crabs, hermit crabs, 

 large whelks, a few starfishes, and an abun- 

 dance of small shells of a score or more species. 

 Starfishes are of course more abundant on the 

 adjacent oyster beds. There were no edible 

 blue crabs, no horseshoe crabs, very few mus- 

 sels, oysters, squids or lobsters, but nearly 

 always considerable mud filled with marine 

 worms. There were very few of the shore 

 fishes. 



Flounders were more abundant than any 

 other fishes and were feeding on the marine 

 worms that are in the bottom mud everywhere. 

 Sometimes as many as 200 flounders came up 

 at one time. It is likely that flounders are more 

 abundant than the dredge hauls indicated since 

 the beam trawl is not a very effective fishing 

 device. It moves slowly along the bottom and 

 the larger and more active fishes can easily keep 

 out of its way as it is only eight feet wide. 



