Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission, 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 
BIOLOGICAL NOILS. 
No. 2. Issued August, 1901. 
NOTES ON THE MIGRATION, SPAWNING, ABUNDANCE, ETC., OF CERTAIN 
FISHES IN 1900. 
By George IT. Sherwood and Vinal N. Edwards. 
Observations on the habits, abundance, spawning, migrations, and on the 
influence of physical changes on these phenomena, are here presented for a number 
of fishes of the Woods Hole region during the season of 1900: 
Tarpon atlanticus, Tarpon. 
Mr. H. M. Knowles, of Wakefield, It. I., is authority for the statement that a tarpon 5 feet 
long, and so slender that it weighed only 30 pounds, was caught in a fish trap near Dutch Island 
Harbor, Narragansett Bay. Another weighing 80 pounds was taken at Marthas Vineyard, and a 
smaller one in the Fish Commission trap at Woods Hole. The northern limit of range of this species 
is southern New England, but it probably does not breed north of Cuba. 
Brevoortia tyrannus, Menhaden. 
Although the menhaden season of 1900 was regarded as the most successful in three years, the fish 
were exceedingly scarce in this vicinity, particularly during the last of August, at which time it was 
impossible to procure any, either in Boston or Newport; and on this account a contemplated trip to 
the tile-fish grounds had to be postponed. In Buzzards Bay, however, where all net fishing is 
prohibited by law, large schools were present all summer. 
Hippocampus hudsonius, Sea-horse. 
In August a fine specimen of Hippocampus was dredged by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer 
Fish ITawk, outside of Devils Bridge, Gay Head. It was taken to the laboratory and lived for several 
days in the aquarium. This is the only one caught for several years. 
Scomber scombrus, Mackerel. 
Notwithstanding the catch of mackerel along the Atlantic coast was phenomenal, very few were 
taken in inshore waters. Even the traps far from the shore off Seaconnet and Newport took scarcely 
any. The failure of the mackerel to enter Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound is to be attributed in all 
probability to the remarkable scarcity of small fish of all kinds. Indeed, seining has never resulted in 
the capture of fewer small and young fish than in 1900. 
The first mackerel reached Chatham April 29, and on the following day were taken at Cuttyhunk 
and Menemsha. The temperature of the water at Woods Hole at this time was 46° F., although 
50° F. is apparently more favorable for them. The presence of so many spawning fish near the coast 
in 1900 led one to expect that young mackerel would be numerous, but this was not the case. On 
July 9 a few young mackerel 2.5 to 3 inches in length were seen in a trap at Woods Hole, but in 
a few days they disappeared and no more were recorded in the vicinity until late in the fall, and even 
then only in small numbers. 
As throwing some light on the question of the equatorial migration of the mackerel, it is of 
interest that in 1898 they appeared at Seaconnet, R. I., Chatham, Mass., and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 
on the same day, May 3. 
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