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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
Small and moderate sized tuna (below 100 pounds) are comparatively rare in 
the Gulf of Maine. However, schools composed of individuals estimated to weigh 
not more than 40 to 70 pounds were observed around Boston lightship July 13 and 
14, 1935. 6 None below 20 pounds has been recorded within the gulf, but off southern 
New England, especially near Block Island, small tuna are sometimes caught, there 
being an unusual run of them (8 to 12 pounds) in 1928. Thus it is probable either 
that the lower temperatures of the Gulf of Maine are a barrier to the smaller-sized 
tuna, or that they find less favorable feeding grounds there than do the larger sizes. 
Off the New England coast the first schools are sighted late in June or early July 
to the southward of Block Island, over depths of about 85 fathoms, and a few days 
later they appear inshore. At first the fish are hungry, and there is some reason to 
believe that their summer migrations follow their breeding period. An example of 
their seasonal abundance in the shore waters of the coast of Maine may be had from 
the catches made in the vicinity of Casco Bay in 1926, where about 70 fish were taken 
in July, 17 in August, 3 in September, and 1 on October 4. 
Common bonito, Sarda sarda (Bloch) 
Two fish were reported from the mouth of Kennebec River in July and one in 
September 1930, and one from southern Nova Scotia (Vladykov, 1935, p. 7) in the 
latter month. 
In looking through the records of the catches made by a certain set of pound nets 
at Provincetown over a period of 10 years, we find the earliest catch for that locality 
was in July (1915), and the latest on October 4 (1919). 
Spearfish, marlin, Makaira albida (Poey) 7 
No spearfish were reported in the Gulf of Maine from about 1880 until 1925. 
Since then, however, seven specimens have been brought in, all in summer, one of 
them from off Portland, the others from Georges, Browns, and Sable Island Banks, 
the last being the most northerly record for the species in the western North Atlantic. 
These specimens ranged from 5 feet to nearly 16 feet in length and from 21 to about 
700 pounds in weight. 
Additional descriptive data based on two New England specimens examined by 
us are as follows: The first dorsal fin of one specimen has 47 stiff rays, the other fish 
having 48. This fin is separated from the second dorsal by a space equal to the 
length of the latter in the one fish, by a shorter space in the other. The first anal fin 
(2 spines and about 12 or 13 rays), situated below the rear part of the first dorsal, is 
triangular, its first rays forming a sharp angle. 
Swordfish, Xiphias gladius Linnaeus 
The largest swordfish definitely recorded from the Gulf of Maine was one, caught 
in the summer of 1921 by Capt. Irving King and landed at the Boston Fish Pier, 
that weighed 915 pounds dressed — hence, upward of 1,000 pounds alive (Fishing 
Gazette, September 1921, p. 13). The specimen was not measured, but the sword 
being more than 5 feet, the total length of the fish must have approximated 15 feet. 
# Data furnished by J. W. Lowes. 
7 Recorded by Bigelow and Welsh (1925, p. 227) as Tetrapturus imperator (Bloch and Schneider). 
