COD MOVEMENTS ON THE CANADIAN ATLANTIC COAST

• Published in: Contributions to Canadian Biology and Fisheries
• Main Author: McKENZIE, R. A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1933
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; General Engineering; General Environmental Science; Canso; Prince Edward Island; Seal Island
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f33-031; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f33-031

From 1925 to 1933 inclusive, during the summer season, 8,774 cod were tagged at eight points along the coasts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and eight per cent were recaptured during the following years, none after the sixth.Cod performing a restricted migration (less than 40 kilometres) were found to be in the majority off Halifax from July to September and off Shelburne in June and August in certain areas.Near Seal island in June, off Shelburne in July and September, and off Glace Bay in July and August, the majority of the cod were found to show orderly extended migrations. In the first two instances this movement was shoreward in the summer and seaward to about 130 metres in the early winter. The Glace Bay cod moved from the offshore banks just west of the Laurentian channel to the Cape Breton vicinity in the summer, returning early in the winter.A small percentage of the various stocks of cod performed roving migrations.The complete forsaking of the Cape Breton district for the offshore banks in the winter is attributed to the unfavourable ice cold water, while south-westward of Canso the movement off shore is thought to be caused by the very warm water inshore in the autumn and continued through the influence of the cold inshore waters several months later.As they grow older, the Shelburne cod remain progressively a little farther off shore when they move to shoal water each summer.