Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology Volume 61 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 Excerpt: ... though both these species, particularly Haddock, spawn in large numbers hi the Gulf; their eggs occurring more regularly in the townets than those of other fish (p. 257); and we have never taken any Mackerel fry in the Gulf, though Mackerel eggs are by no means rare there (p. 264). Since the nets in use were all adapted to the capture of the small fry, and did yield considerable numbers of other Fig. 86. Grampus records for larval cod, . and larval haddock, X. 1912-1915. young fish, notably Sebastes, and Merluccius, it can hardly be supposed that if Cod and Haddock larvae were as numerous as Silver Hake fry the nets would consistently miss the one, and capture the other. Consequently, even if the youngest pelagic stages of Cod and Haddock are not as rare in the Gulf as the records suggest, there is good reason to conclude that they are not abundant there during the summer. Furthermore, the few records of young Cod and Haddock are all grouped in the southwest corner of the Gulf (Fig. 86), though their eggs were as abundant in the east as in its west side; and our captures of Silver Hake fry are similarly limited to the immediate neighborhood of the coast in the southern and southwestern corner of the Gulf (Fig. 83) though its eggs occur all along the coastal zone from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia; and this has so consistently been the experience for the past four summers, during which so many hauls have been made in various parts of the Gulf, that it must be accepted as the normal condition for the summer. All this, of course, suggests a migration, or rather drift, of the young fry, westerly and southwesterly around the periphery of the Gulf of Maine, past Cape Cod, and so either to Nantucket Shoals or Georges Bank; and, such a movement would agree very well with..