396 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
The pigfish, as already stated, inhabits the local shore waters, the salt-water 
sounds, and estuaries throughout the summer, arriving in March and April and dis- 
appearing again the end of October and during the first half of November. Its 
winter home is not definitely known. No pigfish have been taken during the winter 
in catches made with a 30-foot otter trawl operated by the laboratory crew off 
Beaufort Inlet in depths as great as 10 fathoms. The local sea bass (blackfish) 
fishermen, however, take a few throughout the winter on the sea-bass grounds about 
20 miles offshore in depths of about 18 fathoms. The hooks used for the sea bass are 
rather too large for the smaller mouthed pigfish, and the number taken may be no indi- 
cation of the numbers actually present. Southward and northward migrations do not 
appear plausible for the reason that the pigfish does not appear in commercial 
abundance in the fisheries of South Carolina and Georgia, although it is a species of 
some commercial value in Florida. If the large body of pigfish which undoubtedly 
leaves the shallow waters of North Carolina and Virginia at the approach of cold 
weather migrated southward to return the following spring, one would expect the 
species to appear, at least in the early spring and late autumn, in commercial quantities 
in the shore fisheries of South Carolina and Georgia. Since this is not the case and 
since a few, at least, are known to occur on the sea-bass grounds after they leave the 
shore waters, it seems more probable that the fish migrate offshore rather than 
southward. 
Wherever the winter habitat of the pigfish may be, it does not appear to offer 
the abundance of food that the fish find in their summer home, for they leave well fed 
and fat and return in the spring in a considerably emaciated condition, a fact well 
known to fishermen and dealers. Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928, pp. 259-260) 
have shown, from a limited number of length measurements and weights, that fish 
taken in May in Chesapeake Bay weighed considerably less than fish of equal lengths 
caught in October. The following table, based on fish taken at Beaufort in April 
and May and in October and November, shows a similar relationship. 
Table 1. — Comparison of lengths and. weights of 'pigfish taken in the spring and autumn 
Date 
Length 
Weight 
Date 
Length 
Weight 
Date 
Length 
Weight 
Inches 
8.0 
Ounces 
3.4 
May 27 
Inches 
9.5 
Ounces 
5. 75 
Nov. 1 
Inches 
8.9 
Ounces 
6.8 
May 27 
8.0 
3.5 
May 12 
10. 75 
10.0 
Do 
9. 25 
8.9 
8.9 
6. 1 
Oct 15 
8.0 
4.2 
Do 
9. 5 
9. 4 
Do 
8.9 
5.7 
Nov. 1 
8.0 
4.7 
10.5 
11.0 
Apr. 15 
9.25 
5.0 
Oct. 23 
8.8 
6.3 
Why does the pigfish leave the shallow shore waters of North Carolina (and 
northward) when cool weather comes? This question quite logically comes to mind 
in connection with the foregoing discussion. It can not be definitely answered 
at this time. It is thought that the main reason for its withdrawal is a disagreeable 
temperature, although a decrease in its food supply may be a secondary cause. 
Small crustaceans and at least some small fish — two of its principal foods — are 
present all winter. For that reason it would seem probable that the fish leaves 
because the temperature of the water is not agreeable rather than for the purpose 
of seeking better feeding grounds in which it does not seem to be very successful, 
as already shown. Since the pigfish is a member of a family of tropical fishes — 
namely, the grunts — and the only one of the family occurring north of Florida in 
commercial numbers, a dislike for low temperatures might be expected. 
