TILEFISH (name coined from penultimate syllable of generic name). A deep-sea fish (Lopholatilus chameleonticeps) chiefly remark able for its strange history. It was accidentally discovered in large numbers in 1879 by fishermen trawling for cod south of Nantucket. and was found again in 1SSO and 1S81. In the spring of 1882 shipmasters reported that an immense area of ocean surface about 300 miles south of Long Island was covered with many millions of float ing fish. dead or dying, chiefly tilefish, which showed no marks of injury or disease. Verrill and othei ichthyologists, judging by various circumstances, explained this as the result of an incursion of cold water, forced by the heavy northerly gales of that spring, into the warm area of the Gulf Stream.
This fish represents a genus of the family Malacanthile, which incindes several edible fishes of the seas of both sides of tropical Ameri ca. one of which, the blanquilla or 'whitefish' (Canlolatilus princeps), is a. well-known food fish of southern California. The tilefish is a large, big-headed, brilliantly colored, active fish, sometimes 40 pounds in weight, hut ordinarily from 10 to 20 pounds. It is characterized by a high adipose protuberanee upon the nape in ad vance of the long dorsal fin. and by a short bar
bel at the angle of the lips on each side. Its flesh was found to be excellent, and the United States Fish Commission made great efforts to learn where it might be found. but the disaster of 1S8'2 seemed to have wholly exterminated the species. Some ten years later an occasional one was captured. and investigation of the edge of the continental plateau was resumed by the Fish Commission. It was finally determined that the area of their distribution extends along a hand of sea-bottom from about 39° N. latitude southward between 69° and 73° W. longitude to an unknown distance, in water from 60 to 80 fathoms deep, wherever the water has a tempera ture not colder than 30° F. Increasing catches were made in 1900, 1901, and 1902.
Consult Collins, 'History of the Tile Fish," in Annual Report of the United States Commis sioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1882 (Wash ington. 1S84) : Lucas. Annual Report of the United States National Mu-scum for 1SS9 (Wash ington. 1891) ; Bumpus, "The Reappearance of the Tilefish." in Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission (Washington, 1899).