Fairchild et al.: Spring feeding of Anarhichas lupus on Stellwagen Bank, Massachusetts 
195 
Figure 1 
Map of the study area on the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) 
in Massachusetts Bay and catch per unit of effort (CPUE), measured as the number 
of Atlantic wolffish ( Anarhichas lupus) caught per hour by bottom trawl gear. 
(1 SD), a measure of feeding intensity, for all Atlantic 
wolffish sampled was 7.77 (SD 5.58), indicating that 
this population of wolffish was feeding heartily in late 
May and early June on the SBNMS. 
Including nonprey items such as rocks and, in one 
instance, a metal fishing hook (Table 4), 18 items were 
identified in stomachs of Atlantic wolffish. In addi- 
tion, 2 Atlantic wolffish contained whole undigested 
longhorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus ) 
that likely were ingested during the tow because of 
an abundance of longhorn sculpin in the study area. 
As expected, the most frequently occurring prey items 
were bivalves, decapod crustaceans, gastropods, and 
echinoderms. Bivalves, decapod crustaceans, and echi- 
noderms were the most volumetrically important prey 
items because of the prevalence of indigestible shells 
and exoskeletons. The sea scallop ( Placopecten magel- 
lanicus) was the most dominant prey taxon both in fre- 
quency of occurrence and overall weight. 
In both females and males, K was correlated posi- 
tively with age (males: r=0.198, P-0.02; females: 
r=0.283, P<0.05; Fig. 5). Overall, there was no differ- 
ence in K between sexes (17=9349.5; P=0.179). Mean K 
was 0.99 (SD 0.19) for females and 1.03 (SD 0.24) for 
males. 
Discussion 
Atlantic wolffish abundance 
It is clear that high concentrations of Atlantic wolffish 
occurred on the SBNMS, especially in late May and to a 
lesser degree in early June 2011 (Table 1, Fig. 1), there- 
by confirming the accounts of fishermen. On the basis 
of published literature reviews, this degree of density 
of Atlantic wolffish is not well documented. Although 
references to Atlantic wolffish distribution “hotspots” 
can be found in agency reports (i.e., AWBRT 3 , Kulka et 
al. 8 ), we were able to find only one published account of 
dense wolffish aggregations. This account documented 
spotted wolffish (A. minor) caught on the northwest 
slope of the Grand Banks from August to early Septem- 
ber in 1972 by Newfoundland trawlers (Templeman, 
1986a). Captains estimated in their logbooks that they 
caught as much as 59,000 kg (130,073 lb) of spotted 
Kulka, D. W., M. R. Simpson, and R. G. Hooper. 2004. Chang- 
es in distribution and habitat associations of wolffish (An- 
arhichidae) in the Grand Banks and Labrador Shelf. Can. 
Sci. Advis. Seer. Res. Doc. 2004/113, 44 p. [Available from 
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas.] 
