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The Fundy Survey

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The Fundy Survey THE l!'UNDY SURVEY TFffii CUSK FISHEHY by Helen 1. Battle University of Wes t er n Ontario 1931 - 1 ­ Tl ;.~ CUSK FISHERY Cont ents Nomencl a t ur e p . 2 Illustrati ons p. 3 Di s t i n gu ish ing Charact eristies p. 4 ~ e l at i v e I mportance of Fundy Oat oh p. 5 ni s t rihu t i on in Fun ' y r e a p . 8 .1et ;lOci s of Ca pture :p. 11 Fl u ct u a t i on s in t h e ]~ i s h e ry t hly p , 1 2 .n.ymuel p , 13 Ut i l i z a t i on p . 14 Recor ! en d a t i on s p , 1 5 - 1 ­ THE CUSK FI S}~RY Contents Nomenclature p. 2 Illustrations p. 3 Distinguishing Charact eri stics p. 4 Rel a t i v e Importance of Fundy Catch p. 5 Di s t r ibu t i on in PUTIdy Area p. 8 met hods of Capture p. 11 Fluctuati ons in the Fishery Monthl y p. 12 )..nnuaJ. p. 13 Utilizati on p. 14 Becomme ndat i ons r­ 15 - 2 ... THE CUSK FISHERY Soientifio Name - Brosmius brosme (Mffller) Common Name - Cusk t Tusk t Torsk. This species of fish is generally known as the "Cusk". The terms ~lsk and Torsk while of European origin were apparent­ ly used in the Fundy region about a century ago t when a well­ known fishing ground in the Gulf of Maine was called the "Tusk Rock". They are not in general use now in this region, al­ though most fishermen in Yarmouth County know the terms and con­ sider them as synonymous with Cusk. - 3 ­ Illustrattons Bigelow t H. B. Fishes of the Gulf of j,::sine. Bul l et i n of the United States Bur eau of Fisheries, Vol. XL , ~art I, p. 463, fig. 230. 1924 Goode, George Brown. American Fishes (3stes and Lauriat, Bos t on ) p , 358. 1887 Photograph b y Dr. V. D. Vladykov. 1931 - 4 ­ '. Distinguishing Characteristics The cusk is classified with hake in the Canadi an Fishery Statistics, but is readily separable from all its Fundy "Ar ea relatives by the fact that it has a single so-called dorsal or back fin, bordered wi t h black and edged with wh i t e . The cusk is more slender than the hake and, although all the fins are thick and fleshy at the base, they taper to a thin margin. The blunt snout, small smeller on the lower jaw, and the large mouth gaping past the eye, resemble those of a cod. The cusk is often ascribed as rleel-likelf due to its slender form and frequent oLav e--gr een a pp earance combined wi th a slimy surfaced skin. Its colour is so variable that no doubt it c onforms to the bottom on which it lives. Th e most common coloration of specimens examined on the New Brunswi ck shore, off Grand Ma na n was a mottled dark gr eeni s h brown to pale yellowish shade fading on the sides to a cream colored belly. Medium and small fish differ from older specimens by t he presence of usual­ ly six transverse yellowish bars on t he sides. Occa s i on a l spe­ cimens are taken off t he Swal l ow Tail Light and are said to in­ variably bear dark blotches from a blue-black to a jet black. Cusk landed off Yarmouth County are a1so of two dis­ tinctive colorations' de~endent on the locality from which they have been taken: 1) Yellow Gusk -These fish are yellowish in colour with inky black irregular areas from t he size of a pi n­ head to the diameter of a t wenty-five cent piece. 5 ­ l h ey are taken f rom s hoal wa t er about the so-called "Home of Ou ak" to t h e south wes t of eal ISland and, less often, on the shore of 3r own 1 s Bank t oward t he island. 2) Black Cusk or 3 roi711 Cusk -These fi sh are an even dark brown coloration wi th six yeLLow l eh bands si:nilar to the medium fish off Gr ana nan . Th es e are found di­ rectly south of t he Cape in s hoal water. Fi v e brown cu sk examined at Abbott 1s Har b our v aried in length from 21 to 28 inches, and rang ed from 2 1/2 to 6 pounds gu t t ed . tour yellow cusk, mea s ur ed at t he same time, ranged from 26 to 30 inches in len8th, an d 6 to 9 pounds in wei ght . Th e :~ nd y catch has so f ar as is kno wn been composed of l ar ge adult :fi sh exc ep t for a f ew small eoe ct mens (8-10 inches) taken in 193 0 off Lurcher 'h oaL Il'he s pawning season of t he cusk seems t o be in the s pring or e a r Ly su : un er , Dur i ng t he l ate wi n t er , t he g on ds a r e full and by midau nn er are s pent. Rel a t i v e Im~ortance of yun dy Catch ~Ph e annual fi sheri es statistical reports record "Cu sk" 1905 f or t he f i rst time in the :Oi b;'l County returns for" 1909-10 and 1910-11. Thi s was given in mlndr ed wei g ltB a n d wa s t ak en as dr i ed an d. mU l t i p l i ed by thr ee t o ob t ain t Le fresh r ound weight • .!!' r OIl 1911-12 to 193 0 i nclusive "H ke a nd. Cusk" a re gi v en under t h e s ame hea ding i n hundred wei ght s a s caught and landed. It is - 6 ­ essential to estimate in some way the actual quanti ties of ousk taken in the l>undy Area. The fishery is concentrated near the mouth of the Bay and mainly on the Nova Scot i a n side. The "hake- and cu sk" returns for St. John, Albert, the Fundy Vl a t er s hed of We s t mor l and , Cumberland and Colchester, Hant s , Kings and Annapolis Counties are one hundred per cent. hake. Supervisor J. Calder states that the Charlotte County returns are 99 3/4 per cent. hake. A representative catch at Gr a nd Man an in 1 931 consisted of approximately 2500 pounds of hake and two large cusk, although this ratio is sometimes considerably greater. Di gb y County is divided into two fishing districts, Digb y Clare from Yarmouth Coun t y line to t he Si s s i boo Ri v er , and Di gby No.1 from Weymou t h to Bear Ri v er . The district Digby Clare has a one hundred per cent. hake catch while Digb y No. 1 is estimated to include about 2 per cent. cusk in the returns. Sometimes the Digby County returns have been recorded only for the county as a whole so i t is essential to determine what per­ centage of the catch is represented by each district. The respective landings of hake and cusk for t he -past five years are given as follows in hundred wei ghts: Digby No. 1 Digby Clare 1926 63,071 432 1927 95,558 12 1928 100,999 54 1929 114,346 139 1930 108,752 263 - 7 ­ Over this period, then, only .186 per cent. of the total hake and cusk for the oounty were landed in Digby Clare. Then of the total hake and cusk for the county, two per cent. of a total of 99.814 per cent. (Digby No.1) are cusk or 1.996 per cent. Similarly in Yarmouth County there are two fishing dis­ tricts, Yarmouth east, (No.1) and Yarmouth west (No.2). It is estimated that 85 per cent. of the hake and cusk in Yarmouth west (no. 2) are cusk. For Yarmouth east (No.1) a typical fare from a vessel was weighed in AUVlst 1931. This fare of fresh fish (cod, cusk, haddock etc.) was caught by seventeen fishermen opera­ ting with hand lines in one vessel during four and one half days of fishing between ten and twenty miles south by east from Seal Island. It included among the other ground fish, 651 pounds of cusk and only two hake. If these hake averaged five pounds each, which would undoubtedly be a maxirrmm, the hake only represents 1.5 per cent. of the total hake and cusk landing. The hake and cusk for both Yarmouth districts from 1928 to 1930 is given in hundred weights as follows: Yarmouth No. 1 Yarmouth No. 2 1928 144 6,697 1929 68 11,123 1930 85 10,390 Yarmouth No. 1 represents only 1.1 ner cent. of the landings for the county, but of the district total 98.5 per cent. is cusk. This gives then about 1.08 per cent. of the Yarmouth County ousk landed in district No.1. Similarly for district No.
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