Beautiful Fish: Grenadier -By Al Bezanson

Common Grenadier, Rat-tail, Marlin Spike

Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine—

The common grenadier was formerly regarded as a rare stray in the inner parts of the Gulf of Maine for only two had been recorded there aside from the Eastport and Lubec specimens mentioned above, the  one from the western basin in 160 fathoms, the other from off Gloucester, both of them taken many years ago. But they must be rather common on the muddy bottoms of the deeper parts of the Gulf in 85 to 125 fathoms, for we have caught more than 100 of them at various localities on recent trawling trips. No doubt it is because few vessels ever fish on these grounds, which are not productive either of cod or of haddock, that the presence of grenadiers there has been overlooked. A grenadier, too, was reported from the slope of Jeffreys Ledge, in about 50 fathoms, during March 1934.  Usually about a foot long.

Rough-headed Grenadier, Rat-tail, One-eye

Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine—

Three quarters of a century ago, when halibut were more plentiful in the Gulf of Maine than they are today, and when vessels, long-lining from Gloucester, still resorted regularly to the deep channel between Georges Bank and Browns Bank as well as to the deep gullies that interrupt the Nova Scotian banks, large grenadiers were often hooked. Fishermen described them as common enough to be a nuisance, for they stole the baits meant for other fish and were of no commercial value themselves. It was on the strength of such reports that Goode[7] characterized them as “exceedingly abundant on all of our offshore banks.”   Maximum  length of 3 feet and a weight of 4 or 5 pounds

From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) online courtesy of MBL/WHOI

http://www.gma.org/fogm/Macrourus_bairdii.htm

http://www.gma.org/fogm/Macrourus_berglax.htm