NOAA Technical Report NMFS Circular 401 Fisheries and Fishery Resources of New York Bight S r*TES o* * J. L McHugh March 1977 NOAA TECHNICAL REPORTS National Marine Fisheries Service, Circulars The major responsibilities of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are to monitor and assess the abundance and geographic distribution of fishery resources, to understand and predict fluctuations in the quantity and distribution of these resources, and to establish levels for optimum use of the resources. NMFS is also charged with the development and implementation of policies for managing national fishing grounds, development and enforcement of domestic fisheries regulations, surveillance of foreign fishing off United States coastal waters, and the development and enforcement of international fishery agreements and policies. NMFS also assists the fishing industry through marketing service and economic analysis programs, and mortgage insurance and vessel construction subsidies. 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Processing EASTROPAC STD data and the construction of ver- tical temperature and salinity sections by computer. By Forrest R. Miller and Kenneth A. Bliss. February 1972, iv + 17 p., 8 figs., 3 app. figs. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Of- fice, Washington, D.C. 20402. 366. Key to field identification of anadromous juvenile salmonids in the Pacific Northwest. By Robert J. MacConnell and George R. Snyder. January 1972, iv + 6 p., 4 figs. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 367. Engineering economic model for fish protein concentration processes. By K. K. Almenas, L. C. Durilla, R. C. Ernst, J. W. Gentry, M. B. Hale, and J. M. Marchello. October 1972, iii + 175 p., 6 figs., 6 tables. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 368. Cooperative Gulf of Mexico estuarine inventory and study, Florida: Phase I, area description. By J. Kneeland McNulty, William N. Lindall. Jr., and James E. Sykes. November 1972, vii + 126 p., 46 figs., 62 tables. For sale bv the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 369. Field guide to the anglefishes (Pomacanthidae) in the western Atlantic. By Henry A. Feddern. November 1972, iii + 10 p., 17 figs. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Of- fice, Washington, D.C. 20402. 370. Collecting and processing data on fish eggs and larvae in the California Current region. By David Kramer, Mary J. Kalin, Elizabeth G. Stevens, James R. Thrailkill, and James R. Zweifel. November 1972, iv + 38 p., 38 figs., 2 tables. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 371. Ocean fishery management: Discussion and research. By Adam A. Sokoloski (editor). (17 papers, 24 authors.) April 1973, vi + 173 p., 38 figs., 32 tables, 7 app. tables. 372. Fishery publications, calendar year 1971: Lists and indexes. By Thomas A. Manar. October 1972, iv + 24 p., 1 fcg. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.F. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 374. Marine flora and fauna of the northeastern United States. Annelida: Oligochaeta. By David G. Cook and Ralph O. Brinkhurst. May 1973, iii + 23 p., 82 figs. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 375. New Polychaeta from Beaufort, with a key to all species recorded from North Carolina. By John H. Day. July 1973, xiii + 140 p., 18 figs., 1 table. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 376. Bottom-water temperatures on the continental shelf, Nova Scotia to New Jersey. By John B. Colton, Jr. and Ruth R. Stoddard. June 1973, iii + 55 p., 15 figs., 12 app. tables. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 377. Fishery publications, calendar year 1970: Lists and indexes. By Mary Ellen Engett and Lee C. Thorson. December 1972, iv + 34 p., 1 fig. For sale bv the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 378. Marine flora and fauna of the northeastern United States. Protozoa: Ciliophora. By Arthur C. Borror. September 1973, iii + 62 p., 5 figs. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 379. Fishery publications, calendar year 1969: Lists and indexes. By Lee C. Thorson and Mary Ellen Engett. April 1973, iv + 31 p., 1 fig. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 380. Fishery publications, calendar year 1968: Lists and indexes. By Mary Ellen Engett and Lee C. Thorson. May 1973, iv + 24 p., 1 fig. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Of- fice, Washington, D.C. 20402. 381. Fishery publications, calendar year 1967: Lists and indexes. By Lee C. Thorson and Mary Ellen Engett. July 1973, iv + 22 p., 1 fig. For sale bv the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 382. Fishery publications, calendar year 1966: Lists and indexes. By Mary Ellen Engett and Lee C. Thorson. July 1973, iv + 19 p., 1 fig. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Of- fice, Washington, D.C. 20402. 383. Fishery publications, calendar year 1965: Lists and indexes. By Lee C. Thorson and Mary Ellen Engett. July 1973, iv + 12 p., 1 fig. For sale bv the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 384. Marine flora and fauna of the northeastern United States. Higher plants of the marine fringe. By Edwin T. Moul. September 1973, iii + 60 p., 109 figs. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Govern- ment Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 385. Fishery publications, calendar year 1972: Lists and indexes. By Lee C. Thorson and Mary Ellen Engett. November 1973, iv + 23 p., 1 fig. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Of- fice, Washington, D.C. 20402. 386. Marine flora and fauna of the northeastern United States. Pyc- nogonida. By Lawrence R. McCloskey. September 1973, iii + 12 p., 1 fig. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 387. Marine flora and fauna of the northeastern United States. Crustacea: Stomatopoda. By Raymond B. Manning. February 1974, iii + 6 p., 10 figs. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Govern- ment Printing Office. Washington, D.C. 20402. Continued on inside back c r MENl Of C NOAA Technical Report NMFS Circular 401 Fisheries and Fishery Resources of New York Bight J. L McHugh March 1977 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Juanita M. Kreps, Secretary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Robert M. White, Administrator National Marine Fisheries Service Robert W. Schoning, Director For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Pr Washington, D.C. 20402 Stock No. 003-020-00129-7 Oih, The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) does not approve, rec- ommend or endorse any proprietary product or proprietary material mentioned in this publication. No reference shall be made to NMFS, or to this publication furnished by NMFS, in any advertising or sales pro- motion which would indicate or imply that NMFS approves, recommends or endorses any proprietary product or proprietary material mentioned herein, or which has as its purpose an intent to cause directly or indirectly the advertised product to be used or purchased because of this NMFS publication. CONTENTS Introduction 1 Sources of information 3 Total landings in New Jersey 4 Industrial fisheries 6 Atlantic menhaden 6 Industrial trawl fishery 7 Horseshoe crab 7 Alewives 8 Atlantic herring 8 Shrimps 9 Semi-industrial fisheries 9 Red hake and white hake 9 Silver hake 11 Squids 12 Food Fisheries 13 American oyster 14 Bluefish 18 Atlantic sturgeon 18 Sea mussels 19 Tautog 20 American shad 20 Weakfish 21 Eels 22 White perch 23 Haddock 24 Atlantic cod 24 Atlantic croaker 25 Spot 26 Butterfish 27 Blue crab 28 Atlantic bonito 29 Spanish mackerel 29 Northern kingfish 30 Atlantic mackerel 30 Hard clam 31 Soft clam 32 Chub mackerel 33 Frigate mackerel 33 Scup 33 Black sea bass 34 Flounders 35 Summer flounder 35 Winter flounder 35 Yellowtail flounder 36 Little tunny 37 Surf clam 37 Bluefin tuna 38 Atlantic sea scallop 39 Atlantic bay scallop 40 American lobster 41 Swordfish 42 Striped bass 43 Conch 43 Northern puffer 44 Tilefish '. 45 Summary and conclusions 45 Acknowledgments 48 Literature cited 48 Figures 1 Middle Atlantic Bight showing New York Bight 2 2 New York Bight 3 Annual commercial landings of: 3 Fishes and shellfishes in New Jersey 1880-1975 4 4 Industrial fishes and shellfishes in New Jersey 1880-1975 4 5 Fishes and shellfishes used as human food in New Jersey 1880-1975 5 6 Red hake and white hake in New Jersey 1887-1975 10 7 Red hake and white hake in New York 1897-1975 10 8 Silver hake in New Jersey 1897-1975 11 9 Squids in New York and New Jersey 1888-1975 12 10 American oyster in New Jersey 1880-1975 17 11 Bluefish in New Jersey 1880-1975 18 12 Atlantic sturgeon in New York and New Jersey 1880-1975 19 13 Sea mussels, probably mostly blue mussel, in New Jersey 1891-1975 19 14 Tautog in New York and New Jersey 1887-1975 20 15 American shad in New Jersey 1880-1975 21 16 Weakfish in New Jersey 1880-1975 22 17 American and conger eel in New York 1887-1975 22 18 American and conger eel in New Jersey 1887-1975 23 19 White perch in New York and New Jersey 1887-1975 24 20 Haddock in New Jersey 1889-1975 24 21 Atlantic cod in New Jersey 1880-1975 25 22 Atlantic croaker and spot in New Jersey 1889-1975 25 23 Atlantic croaker and spot in New York 1888-1975 26 24 Butterfish in New Jersey 1889-1975 27 25 Blue crab in New Jersey 1880-1975 28 26 Atlantic bonito in New York and New Jersey 1880-1975 29 27 Northern kingfish in New York and New Jersey 1908-1975 30 28 Atlantic mackerel in New Jersey 1889-1975 31 29 Hard clam in New Jersey 1880-1975 31 30 Soft clam in New Jersey 1880-1975 32 31 Scup in New Jersey 1889-1975 34 32 Black sea bass in New Jersey 1887-1975 34 33 Flounders in New Jersey 1887-1975 35 34 Little tunny in New York and New Jersey 1889-1975 37 35 Surf clam in New Jersey 1901-1975 38 36 Bluefin tuna in New York and New Jersey 1901-1975 39 37 Scallops in New Jersey 1897-1975 39 38 American lobster in New Jersey 1880-1975 41 39 Swordfish in New York and New Jersey 1901-1975 42 40 Striped bass in New Jersey 1887-1975 43 41 Conch in New York and New Jersey 1926-1975 44 42 Tilefish in New Jersey 1933-1975 45 43 Historic landings of major species in the New York Bight area (New York and New Jersey). ... 47 Tables Historic domestic commercial, recreational, and foreign marine fishery landings in the north and middle Atlantic regions including New York Bight. 1 Industrial fisheries, New Jersey 6 2 Searobins 8 3 Alewives 8 4 Atlantic herring 9 5 White hake 10 6 Red hake 11 7 Silver hake 12 8 Squids 13 iv 9 Food shellfishes, New Jersey 13 10 Food finfishes, New Jersey 14 11 All fish and shellfish species, New Jersey 15 12 All fish and shellfish species, New York 16 13 American oyster 17 14 Bluefish 18 15 Atlantic sturgeon 19 16 Sea mussels 19 17 Tautog 20 18 American shad 21 19 Weakfish 22 20 American eel 23 21 White perch 23 22 Haddock 24 23 Atlantic cod 25 24 Atlantic croaker 26 25 Spot 27 26 Butterfish 27 27 Blue crab 28 28 Atlantic bonito 29 29 Northern kingfish 30 30 Atlantic mackerel 31 31 Hard clam 32 32 Soft clam 33 33 Scup 34 34 Black sea bass 35 35 Summer flounder 36 36 Winter flounder 36 37 Yellowtail flounder, New Jersey and New York 37 38 Yellowtail flounder, north and middle Atlantic region of the United State 37 39 Surf clam 38 40 Atlantic bluefin tuna 39 41 Atlantic sea scallop 40 42 Atlantic bay scallop 40 43 American lobster 41 44 Swordfish 42 45 Striped bass 43 46 Conch 44 47 Northern puffer 44 48 Tilefish 45 49 Historic trends in domestic landings of major commercial fishery resources 4(i FISHERIES AND FISHERY RESOURCES OF NEW YORK BIGHT 1 2 J. L. McHUGH' ABSTRACT The history of total fish and shellfish landings in the two states (New York and New Jersey) that form the landward boundaries of New York Bight is a history of change. Resource after resource has produced maximum landings, then declined. Total landings dropped from about 315,000 metric tons in 1956 to about 23,000 in 1967 and have risen only moderately since that time. The rise and fall of the in- dustrial fisheries, mostly menhaden, was responsible for most of this decline, and this has masked trends in the food fisheries. Altogether about 132 species or groups of species of fishes and invertebrates have been reported as landed in New Jersey or New York since 1880. Fifty of these are discussed and illustrated with figures and tables of landings. Edible fin fish species as a group reached peak landings in 1939 and declined fairly steadily to about one-third that level in the 1970s. Molluscan and crustacean shellfish production reached two peaks, in 1950 and 1966, the second considerably higher than the first. This recovery of shellfish land- ings in 1966 would not have occurred were it not for the rapid development of the surf clam fishery in the 1950s. The timing of the declines makes it clear that foreign fishing was not the cause, for foreign fishing probably could not have affected the fisheries of New York Bight before the mid-1960s. Actually, total catches of resources taken only by domestic fishermen have declined more sharply than total domes- tic catches of species shared with foreign fleets. Foreign fishing is but a symptom of the troubles of the domestic fisheries, some of which are imagined. The ills of the domestic fisheries are economic and sociopolitical, and they will not yield easily to scientific solutions. INTRODUCTION The coasts of New Jersey and New York form the western and northern boundaries of what is commonly known as New York Bight. The Bight has been defined as those coastal waters extending from Montauk Point, Long Island, N.Y. to Cape May, N.J. and out to the edge of the continental shelf (Figs. 1,2). These waters have been an important fishing ground since the early days of the settlement of North America, and they still produce important quantities of fish and shellfish. In 1975 (National Marine Fisheries Service 1976) the two states produced a total marine commercial catch of about 82,000 metric tons with a landed value of $48.0 million. As will be evident later, this is considerably less than maximum historic landings but it is still substantial. To 'Parts of the analysis on which this paper is based were made under support of a fellowship with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., July-August 1971. The work was completed and the paper written under support from the Marine Ecosystems Analy- sis Program (MESA) of the National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Com- merce. The historical review of marine fisheries in New York State is a result of research sponsored by the New York Sea Grant Institute under a grant from the Office of Sea Grant, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad ministration, U.S. Department of Commerce. 'Contribution 000 of the Marine Sciences Research Center of the State University of New York, Stony Brook, N.Y. 'Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794. some extent the decline in commercial landings has been offset by an increase in the catch by saltwater sport fishermen. New Jersey ranked ninth by weight and fifteenth by value among the coastal states in commer- cial marine fishery landings in 1975, the latest year for which such figures are available; New York ranked seventeenth by weight but eleventh by value. Together, the two states accounted for about 4°c of total U.S. com- mercial landings by weight and about 4.7^ in landed value. There is also considerable foreign fishing and some domestic fishing in the area outside the 12-mile zone of domestic fishery jurisdiction. The foreign catch in sub- areas 5 and 6 of the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF) was nearly 800,000 metric tons in 1974, but in 1972 was more than a million metric tons. The recreational catch in the New York Bight area cannot be determined exactly, but it is probably about 90,000 metric tons, not including inver- tebrates. Reported recreational catches of finfishes in 1970, the latest year for which estimates are available, were about 121,300 metric tons for the north Atlantic region (Maine to New York inclusive) and 111,700 met- ric tons for the middle Atlantic region (New Jersey to North Carolina inclusive). The international fisheries are now under a reasonable degree of control. For example, ICNAF established quotas for subareas 5 and 6 in 1976 totalling 815,000 met- ric tons for 12 species or groups of species, but also placed a stringent additional constraint by setting a total allowable catch, all species combined, of 650.000 metric NANTUCKET' ^pf--50M. .. NA I T .MpNTAUK PT. '-, SHpALS ^3,V,N^R S C ^ L GEORGES BANK 60 69° 68° 67° Figure 1.— Middle Atlantic Bight (Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras) showing location of the area known as New York Bight and subareas 5 and 6 of the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF). Only part of division 5Y, which includes all of the Gulf of Maine, is shown. For all practical purposes it can be assumed that the fishing grounds end at the 200 m isobath, thus it is not important that the northern and eastern boundaries of subarea 5 and the eastern boundary of subarea 6 are not shown. The southern boundary of subarea 6 is just off the chart, at lat. 35°00TV. tons. Domestic fisheries in the area, as will be illustrated in the species discussions to follow, are by no means un- der such rigid control. This applies particularly to the recreational fisheries, which essentially are uncon- trolled. New York Bight is flanked on two sides by the greatest concentration of human population in North America. Some 17 million people live in the New York met- ropolitan region alone. Shipping in and out of the area is heavy, the waters and beaches are used extensively for recreation, including sport fishing, and the inner part of the Bight receives large quantities of domestic and in- dustrial wastes. The Bight also has been considered seriously as a site for deep-draft supertanker ports, off- shore air terminals, and offshore nuclear power plants. Exploratory drilling for petroleum in Baltimore Canyon Trough, off the New Jersey coast, is under serious con- sideration. These issues, and recent intensified public and official interest in environmental quality, have marked the Bight for special attention. As background for environmental studies and environmental manage- ment in the area, it is important to understand the his- tory of its marine fisheries and the present condition of the living resources on which these fisheries are based. An historical review of the marine fisheries of New York State has already been published (McHugh 1972a). The principal conclusions of that study were that the record of landings since 1880 provided a classic example of ineffective management and that the principal causes of the decline of commercial fishing in New York were sociopolitical and domestic, not directly related to foreign fishing. This report deals primarily with New Jer- sey fisheries. The opportunity has been taken, however, to bring the New York study up to date by considering landings and trends in the period 1971-75. The New Jer- sey study was part of the intensive investigation of New 74°30' Figure 2.— New York Bight showing most place names mentioned in the text. Other place names are in Figure 1. York Bight presently being carried out by the Marine Ecosystems Analysis program (MESA) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Depart- ment of Commerce. SOURCES OF INFORMATION Commercial fishery landings in the New York Bight area are available back to 1880. An almost unbroken series of annual commercial landings is available for New Jersey and New York since 1929, but records prior to that time were intermittent. These have been published, usually about 2 yr in arrears, by the National Marine Fisheries Service and its predecessor agencies. New Jer- sey landings include catches from Delaware Bay and other coastal bays and lagoons. New York landings in- clude catches from Long Island Sound and the impor- tant bays of the eastern end and south shore of Long Is- land. These waters are not included within the definition of New York Bight as far as the present MESA studies are concerned, but they do not now account for a very large part of total commercial landings in either state. New York landings from 1954 to 1969 inclusive were reported by statistical areas which apparently allow separation of ocean catches from those made in shel- tered inshore waters, but it is not clear whether landings reported from a statistical area represent catches made exclusively in those waters or landings at ports within the area. Although documentary proof does not exist, it is commonly believed that commercial fishery landings are larger than official records show. This is not unique to the New York Bight area. It probably is a common phenomenon in most coastal areas, and arises from the practice prevalent in the commercial fisheries, es- pecially at smaller, less well-organized points of landing, to pay off in cash and keep no accurate records of the transaction. No satisfactory historical record of marine sport fish catches exists for the area. Biologists of the two states have made various partial studies of saltwater sport fishing and these are useful in providing intuitive es- timates of the saltwater sport fisheries of the area as a whole. The national surveys of 1960, 1965, and 1970, con- ducted by the Bureau of the Census (Clark [1962]; Deuel and Clark 1968; Deuel 1973) included New Jersey and New York, but the estimates were for larger areas and catches for individual states were not reported. New Jer- sey is included in the estimate for the middle Atlantic area, New Jersey to Cape Hatteras inclusive. New York is included with the New England coastal states. Further subdivision would not provide useful estimates state by state because the national sample was too small (David G. Deuel, pers. commun.). Mohr 4 recently made es- timates of recreational finfish catches in New York waters from available data and McHugh (in press a) made rough estimates of recreational shellfish catches. Foreign catches in the sector of New York Bight beyond 12 miles have been reported by ICNAF since 1966, when a new statistical subarea was established by that body, subarea 6, extending from Block Island Sound to Cape Hatteras. This subarea is further subdivided, and division 6A includes essentially the New York Bight area as it has been defined for MESA purposes (Fig. 1). These statistics — domestic commercial and recreational, and foreign — have been collected from various sources and have been published in a compen- dium of available information (McHugh and Williams 1976). That publication contains an extensive bibliography, and the references are not repeated here. Some species discussed in the present paper were not included in the New York study (McHugh 1972a). 5 To bring the two studies into agreement as a treatment of the fisheries of New York Bight as a whole, additional in- formation on the marine fisheries of New York State has been included where appropriate. TOTAL LANDINGS IN NEW JERSEY As in New York, commercial marine landings in New Jersey have been dominated most of the time by indus- trial fisheries, especially for menhaden. Therefore, the history of total landings in New Jersey is largely a his- tory of the menhaden fishery (Fig. 3). To analyze the record thoroughly, landings must be examined by 'Mohr, Peter Thomas. 1976. Marine Sport fisheries of New York State. A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Marine Environmental Sciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook. 'An error in the introduction to that paper should be noted. On page 586 it was stated that surf clam landings dominate the New York catch. This is true for New York and New Jersey combined, but the dominant species in New York landings is hard clam. Figure 3.— Total annual commercial landings of fishes and shellfishes in New Jersey 1880-1975. The lower line shows menhaden landings. In this, as in other figures, broken lines have been used to connect years between which one or more years data are missing. species. It is useful to examine total landings, but to do this intelligently the da,ta must be divided into two sub- sets, industrial fisheries and food fisheries (Fig. 4, 5). Trends in the food fisheries are easier to understand if finfisheries and shellfisheries are separated (Fig. 5). The food shellfisheries as a whole show two principal periods of development. The early period, ending about 1953, was dominated by the oyster industry (Crassostrea virginica), although the trend in oyster production has been downward since the 19th century. The sharp rise in total shellfish production that began in the late 1950s came about mainly through the phenomenal develop- HORSESHOE CRAB 'A- Figure 4.— Annual commercial landings of industrial fishes and shell- fishes in New Jersey 1880-1975. - All - FOOD SHELLFISH / W :i- \..--~-' ''\-Ajj\ / ' A/v\ K'' ' - J V v A /w ' J l/VA FOOD FINFISH M ^/ ' \T Figure 5. — Annual commercial landings of fishes and shellfishes used as human food in New Jersey 1880-1975. The isolated points in the up- per panel represent shellfish landings minus surf clam meats, to il- lustrate the point that if it had not been for development of the surf clam fishery shellfish landings would have shown a downward trend also. ment of the surf clam industry (Spisula solidissima) . The history of the shellfisheries in New Jersey is typical of the development of coastal fisheries everywhere, charac- terized by an early concentration on resources close to shore, followed by an extension of the fishery to ad- ditional species and to more distant waters. The history of the finfisheries shows different trends: an apparent rise to peak production in the last two decades of the 19th century; apparently a drop of about 25% from 1904 to 1926, although records are not available for most years in this early period; a period of relatively high total landings from 1929 to 1949, as shorebound fisheries like the pound net fishery were superseded by the mobile and more efficient trawl fishery (Perlmutter 1959; Knapp in press); followed by a steady drop as the stocks of many species began to decline. The numbers of species in the catch also reflect these changes. In the first period 52 species or species groups 6 were listed, in the se- cond period 60, third period 80, and fourth period 67. If the surf clam catch is omitted, the history of total food fish and food shellfish landings in New Jersey is similar to the history of food fishery landings in New York. Catches increased until early in the 20th century, dropped during the first 25 yr of the 20th century, rose again, and remained relatively high in the period 1930- 50, and then began a steady decline which apparently is still in progress. In New Jersey, as already mentioned "Some species were grouped in official statistics, e.g., drums, searobins, and some other categories like flounders, eels, and hakes were grouped in early statistics but separated later. For consistency it has been assumed that all species later listed separately were represented in early catches. and as illustrated in Figure 5, the postwar decline in total food fish and shellfish production is masked by the rapid- ly increasing catch of surf clam, produced by a new in- dustry which began off the coast of Long Island after the second world war and soon shifted to the much more abundant surf clam resource off New Jersey. Except for the sea scallop industry, which is now much less produc- tive than it was 15 yr ago, this is the only important off- shore fishery for molluscan shellfish. If total landings of food finfishes and food shellfishes in New York are separated (McHugh 1974), the similarity of trends in landings in the two states is even more ap- parent (Fig. 5). Postwar development of the surf clam in- dustry did not distort the trend of shellfish landings so much in New York State because the resource is ap- parently much less abundant off Long Island than it is off the New Jersey coast. Shellfish landings other than surf clam, represented by the unconnected points in the 1950s to 1970s in Figure 5, have declined irregularly but steadily since the 19th century in both states. Food finfish landings in both states fall into four or five fairly distinct periods. Trends in New Jersey landings (Fig. 5) are not dissimilar to those in New York (McHugh 1974). The first two decades were characterized by rising catches, probably because the demand for fish was rising as the population grew, and fishing intensity increased in response. The causes of the decline in the second period probably were complex, partly economic and partly biological, a combination of maximum availability and fluctuation in abundance offish stocks and perhaps some local overfishing. The third period, extending from 1929 to about 1950, was a period of relative prosperity for the food fisheries generally in both states, which began with the development of the trawl fisheries (Pearson 1932), and was extended by the special circumstances of the sec- ond world war. The coastal trawl fisheries, which began in the late 1920s, made available a much larger resource than could be exploited by shorebound fisheries like the pound net and haul seine industries. Domestic trawlers were able to follow migratory resources from Cape Hatteras, N.C. to Cape Cod, Mass. in all seasons. The growth of this fishery was one important cause, although not the only cause, of the decline of pound net fisheries along the coast (Knapp in press). The fourth period in the history of the food finfisheries covers the last two decades up to the present. The causes of the downward trend were com- plex, including lower prices for fish and rising costs of fishing in the postwar era, and declining abundance and probably overfishing of some species, although Reintjes and Roithmayr (1960) believed that, with the possible exception of black sea bass, most species in the Middle Atlantic Bight area were underutilized. In the last 10 yr, additional complications have been added by the growth of foreign fisheries off the northeastern coast of the United States. This development has completed a chain of events characteristic of the evolution of all fisheries. For reasons of efficiency and economics, the domestic trawl fisheries partially broke the bonds that tied the ear- ly fisheries so firmly to the shore (Knapp in press). But the more efficient coastal trawlers still had constraints that linked them to the land. They had no means of processing their catch other than to ice it or freeze it, and since their carrying capacity was limited, they had to return to port at frequent intervals to unload. The large, highly flexible, self-contained fishing fleets of the dis- tant-water fishing nations, centrally controlled and capable of catching and processing any resource, edible or industrial, have reduced the possibilities for survival of some segments of the domestic fishing fleet, es- pecially if domestic fisheries continue to operate on the assumption that they can survive by holding to traditional methods of operation. Despite the additional and serious problems that foreign fishing poses for domestic fisheries in the Middle Atlantic Bight, it is a dangerous oversimplification to blame all the troubles of the domestic fishing industry on "the Russians" (McHugh 1974; Williams 1975). This has been confirmed by Gates and Norton (1974), who viewed foreign fishing, along with other issues, primarily as symptoms rather than causes of the problems of the domestic fisheries. Smith (1975) reached essentially the same conclusion in a study of the otter trawl fishery of Oregon. The basic problems of our coastal fisheries are domestic, but most people tend to forget that the decline of many fisheries of New Jersey and New York, as in most other coastal states, began long before the postwar expansion of foreign distant-water fisheries began (Fig. 5). The basic problems are sociopolitical and economic, and these problems have made it virtually impossible for the United States to manage its coastal fisheries effec- tively. Almost without exception, we have been unable to establish viable management regimes for coastal fishery resources over which the United States has complete control. These include most of the shellfisheries, which with few exceptions harvest resources endemic to ter- ritorial waters, and even some migratory fishes like men- haden and striped bass, which apparently seldom, if ever, move beyond the 12-mile zone of fishery jurisdic- tion during their seasonal migrations. These matters have been discussed in detail by Knapp (in press) and Williams (1975). INDUSTRIAL FISHERIES As in the State of New York (McHugh 1972a), indus- trial fisheries, mostly for menhaden, have dominated the marine fisheries of New Jersey for most of recorded his- tory (Figs 3, 4). The principal difference is that, whereas menhaden landings in New York apparently were sub- stantial at times in the period prior to 1940, the men- haden industry in New Jersey was relatively minor before the second world war. The menhaden industry in the ear- ly days was traditionally based in New England, and this probably explains why it developed earlier in New York than in New Jersey. Examination of Figure 4 suggests that the industrial fisheries of New Jersey can be divided into five fairly dis- tinct periods each dominated by a different species or Table 1. — Average annual landings of industrial fishes and industrial shellfishes, including bait, in New Jersey for five m periods in the history of the industrial fisheries of the State. Weights in metric tons. Species 1880 -1926 1929 -1952 1953 -1962 1963-1970 1971-1975 Menhaden 10 165 41 811 161 069 28,838 47,788 Horseshoe crab 1 014 920 167 47 * Alewives 862 78 5 5 4 ^anfrays 3 ^ 3 ' 28 71 9 7 2 Atlantic herring 14 630 244 116 88 Searobins 6 19 35 12 2 Round herring 5 Shrimp 3 38 9 1 1 fishes . 15 442 2,246 16 Mummichog 2 Sandworms 1 B loodworms 1 Minnows * Miscellaneous bait * group of species. Average annual landings of these and other industrial species are given in Table 1. Atlantic Menhaden In 1880 (Earll 1887) the menhaden, Brevoortia tyran- nus (Latrobe), industry dominated the fisheries of Sandy Hook Bay; five large factories for production of oil and meal were operating as compared with only one in New Jersey today. The fish were caught in pound nets and fykes, whereas today most of the menhaden catch is taken by purse seines. An important menhaden fishery operated also in the vicinity of Atlantic City, delivering catches to factories at Tuckerton and Great Egg Harbor. Large quantities of menhaden taken in haul seines and pound nets in this area were used directly as fertilizer for farm lands. In 1880 (Mather 1887) menhaden applied directly to the soil provided fertilizer for extensive farm lands on Long Island. At the eastern end of Long Island, at least 16 menhaden factories were operating, some of them for- merly whaling bases. The menhaden resource was responsible for development of a rich agricultural in- dustry in the sterile, sandy soil. One cause of the great postwar development of the At- lantic coast menhaden fishery was the decline of the sar- dine industry on the Pacific coast (McHugh 1969a). De- mand for fish meal as an ingredient of poultry rations was stimulated by rapid postwar growth of the poultry industry. Landings of menhaden in New Jersey and New York rose rapidly in the 1940s and 1950s, and in both states the catch remained high for about a decade. In New York landings fluctuated about a level of 40,000 metric tons, more or less, during this period of greatest development of the fishery. In New Jersey (Figs 3, 4) it was considerably greater. The peak postwar catch was about four times as great in New Jersey as in New York, but the period of relatively high catches began somewhat earlier and therefore lasted longer in New York, probably because the industry was already established. Landings in both states dropped substantially in 1958. This was caused by a decline in abundance of the living resource, but catches rose again as the strongly dominant year class of menhaden hatched in 1958 (Henry 1971) reached an age at which it was most available to the fishery in the New York Bight area. The two peaks and the low point of landings in this period of greatest prosperity of the men- haden industry came in the same years, the peaks in 1956-57 and 1962 and the low in 1958, but maximum land- ings in New Jersey were recorded in 1956 and in New York in 1962. The decline of the menhaden fishery in the New York Bight area (McHugh 1972a) was caused principally by intensive fishing in Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia purse- seine fishery, which once took mostly 2- and 3-yr-olds, by the late 1960s was taking mostly fish 1 and 2 yr of age, and few survived to migrate north at greater ages as many menhaden formerly did. The recent increase in menhaden catches north of Chesapeake Bay is reflected in New Jersey landings (Fig. 3), which have increased more than fourfold from the low point in 1970. The last menhaden factory in New York has not operated since 1969, and recent large catches in Long Island Sound were delivered to the single remaining New Jersey factory at Port Monmouth, or to New England, for processing. At one time it was believed that the stocks of men- haden in the New York Bight area were distinct from those exploited in Chespeake Bay (June 1958; Suther- land 1963). If this is so, then the recent sharp increase in landings in the New York Bight area might have been made possible by release of energy formerly utilized by the southern stock when it was less heavily exploited and thus could migrate into the Bight in substantial num- bers. Recently, however, it has been concluded that At- lantic menhaden from Florida to New England belong to a single population (Dryfoos et al. 1973). This means that the recent local increase in abundance must have been related to the strong 1969 year class. Fishing effort drop- ped by 54 p c during the period of declining abundance of menhaden (Schaaf 1975), and this probably allowed in- creasing numbers of fish to survive to reach northern waters. The temporary increase in abundance, however, stimulated more intensive fishing. The prospect for the menhaden fishery is not bright, although Boone (1976) has reported that abundance of young menhaden in Maryland waters in 1975 was the second highest on record. No significant harvest of menhaden has been reported by other nations fishing in the area. Grosslein et al. (1973) 7 have pointed out that the only serious possibility of major foreign catches would be in winter when the resource is concentrated off the Carolinas. They recom- 7 Grosslein, M. D„ E. G. Heyerdahl, and H. Stern, Jr. 1973. Status of the international fisheries off the middle Atlantic coast. Northeast Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., Lab. Ref. No. 73-4, 117 p. [A technical reference document prepared for the bilateral negotiations of USA with USSR and Poland. 1 mended that the area be closed to foreign fishing at that time. Industrial Trawl Fishery In New York the rapid decline of menhaden catches after 1962 stimulated a search for alternate resources, and for a few years (1962-66) a substantial industrial trawl fishery developed (McHugh 1972a). At its peak in 1964 this fishery produced about 53,500 metric tons of unsorted and unidentified industrial fishes, which was almost as large as the greatest annual postwar landing of menhaden in New York, recorded in 1962. This catch un- doubtedly included substantial quantities of food fishes, although red hake, Urophycis chuss (Walbaum), probably was the major species by weight (Edwards and Lux 1958). In New Jersey a similar industrial trawl fishery developed (Fig. 4), beginning in 1964 and ending in 1968, but landings were relatively small. The maximum reported catch was about 6,613 metric tons in 1966. The species composition of these landings has not been reported in detail (Lo Verde 1969), but the greatest part of the industrial trawl catch (Table 2) 8 was searobins, Prionotus carolinus (Linnaeus) and P. evolans (Lin- naeus). These landings were not identified by species. Only 86 metric tons of searobins were reported as such in 1966 (Table 2). Horseshoe Crab The horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus (Linnaeus), industry at its recorded peak in 1929 produced about 2,600 metric tons of industrial raw material. Landings of horseshoe crab (or king crab, as it was called in early statistical publications) in New York were very small and infrequent, and minor catches were recorded only for 1887, 1888, and 1921. With this exception, horseshoe crab has been a unique commercial fishery resource of New Jersey and Delaware. The geographic range of the species is from Maine to Yucatan. In New Jersey considerable quantities of horseshoe crab once were landed (Fig. 4). Cook (1857 — in Shuster 1957) reported "immense numbers" taken in Delaware Bay for fertilizer. Shuster (1957) concluded that exten- sive use for fertilizer had much reduced the abundance of these animals. Maximum landings reported in the State of Delaware were 476 metric tons in 1892. Substantial landings were reported in New Jersey until the early 1940s. The subsequent decline of the fishery was caused mainly by forced closure of processing plants through public reactions to offensive odors (Eugene LoVerde pers. commun.). Shuster (1960) said that meal produced from horseshoe crabs has a protein content of 46°?. Limulus also has been used as bait for eels and as food for poultry and hogs. The horseshoe crab is an estuarine in this, and most other tables, foreign catches are given only for those [CNAF statistical areas in which fishing might be expected to affect the domestic coastal fisheries of New York Bight (Fig. 1). Table 2 States --Estimated commercial and recreational is in the north and middle Atlantic regie -oast for the period in which recreationc Btimates are available. Weights in metr catches of ns of the United 1 or foreign NY mmercial catch Me-NY NJ-NC NJ incl. incl. Recreational 1CNAP Foreiqn catch Year Me-NY NJ-NC incl. incl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 3 8 100 9 180 2,088 98 1,279 1,110 7,872 73) 64 173 52 783 323 232 national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 give data by individual states. New York was included with England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic eign catches for 1975 are provisional. This species is luded with the second tier quota for 1976. ures for 1975 in parentheses assume that unavailable landings ., Conn., and Del. equal the average of recent years. n unreported catch is possible. hook and line. In other New Jersey streams lesser num- bers are taken by anglers (Paul Hamer pers. commun.). For some reason, this sport fishery has been ignored in the national surveys of saltwater sport fishing, perhaps because it takes place in fresh water. No estimates of the magnitude of this sport catch exist. Relatively large catches of alewives have been taken recently by foreign fleets operating in the Middle Atlan- tic Bight (Table 3). This has been a matter of serious concern, especially to the fishing industry in Virginia, where the resource is still of major importance. Gross- lein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) confirmed that abun- dance inshore has been declining. Edwards (1975) 10 stated that the biomass of alewives in the area from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras inclusive was about 8 million pounds (3,630 metric tons) in the period 1972-74, down from 87 million pounds (39,500 metric tons) in 1963-65. The fishery now is controlled under bilateral agreements with the major fishing nations. Atlantic Herring Maximum recorded landings of Atlantic herring, Clupea h. harengus Linnaeus, in New Jersey were in 1947 (Fig. 4). Landings have been declining irregularly since that time. One use for this resource was as animal food, but local markets have declined (Lo Verde 1972). Most of animal, and thus not strictly a resource of the open waters of New York Bight. Alewives '"Edwards, R. L. 1975. Middle Atlantic fisheries: Recent changes in populations and the outlook. A paper presented at New York Bight meeting, New York City, November 1975, 20 ms p. Table 3. — Estimated and middle Atlantic weights in metric to 1960-1975. Alewife, i4/osa pseudoharengus (Wilson), and blueback herring, A. aestivalis (Mitchill), were impor- tant species in the early fisheries along the Atlantic coast, but their importance in New Jersey in total weight landed declined fairly early in the 20th century (Fig. 4). 9 Alewives have been used as food fishes and as industrial fishes, but the demand as human food has been declin- ing, although less sharply in the area from Chesapeake Bay southward. There was apparently no attempt in New Jersey to use alewives as a substitute for menhaden in the 1960s as there was in 1966 in New York. Relatively large landings of alewives in New York in 1966 were caught by menhaden purse seiners (Lyles 1968) at- tempting to compensate for the declining menhaden resource. Alewives are a popular recreational resource in certain areas during the spawning migration in spring. Where the species are abundant, as in certain Virginia rivers and in the Potomac, large quantities are taken by dip net as they migrate up rivers and streams. In the Delaware River at Trenton, considerable numbers are taken by "The two species are similar in appearance and have not been listed separately in the statistics, but under the collective term alewives. I960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1974 1975 ,272 13 ,600 19 ,137 19 ,300 16 ,728 23 843 19 323 22 202 23 926 24 400 14, 034 11, 815 10 494 8, 5 78 9, 462) ( 8, angling surveys 541 10,476 222 6,053 825 9,414 761 4,97 5 554 2,234 213 2,818 801 1,342 and 1970 did not include eati Foreig for 1975 Figure for 1975 parei in N.H , Conn., and Del. - An u .reported catch is * Less than 0.5 ic tc the catch is taken in spring in pound nets, as herring are returning toward Georges Bank from wintering grounds south of New Jersey. In 1967 fishermen in New Jersey were experimenting with midwater trawls to catch this species (LoVerde 1968), and it was anticipated that short- ages of menhaden and searobins would stimulate development of a herring fishery. Apparently these at- tempts were not successful. There was no sharp increase in herring landings in New Jersey in the late 1960s, as there was in New York in 1966. Except for the large 1966 landings in New York, which reached nearly 3,000 metric tons, the Atlantic herring fishery there was much smaller than in New Jersey. At- lantic herring have been used in New York to make pickled herring for human consumption, but the local processor has had difficulty recently in obtaining raw material. According to Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) the Soviet Union began the offshore herring fishery in 1961, attracted by two strong year classes produced in 1960 and 1961. Poland and other countries entered the fishery in 1966 and later, and landings reached a peak of 373,000 tons in 1968, then declined (Table 4). The stock declined sharply from 1964 to 1969. Catch quotas were first im- posed in 1972. The total allowable catch for 1976 is 69,000 metric tons. Total biomass in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 combined in 1975 was estimated at 374,000 metric tons (Hennemuth 1975)," a considerable drop from the es- timate of 4 billion pounds (1.8 million metric tons) in the period 1963-65 (Edwards 1975, see footnote 10). Table 4. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of Atlantic herring in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast for the period in which recreational or foreign catch estimates are available, weights in metric tons. Domest ic commercial Recreational ICNAF catch catch Foreiqn catch rear NY NJ Me-NY incl. NJ-NC Me-NY NJ-NC incl. incl. incl. 5Z 5Z 6 1960 89 147 70,246 152 1961 74 96 26,318 101 67,550 1962 29 94 71,813 99 151,421 1963 39 69 70,126 77 97,102 544 1964 70 137 28,739 148 130,758 191 1965 126 113 34,152 208 136 - 39,778 1,913 1966 2 ,906 136 32,618 177 135,629 2,767 1967 67 24 31,165 524 213,449 4,104 1968 44 99 41,716 122 39,505 231,835 29,000 1969 60 168 31,170 197 46,375 206,366 52,166 1970 28 182 30,084 187 - - 9,223 196,407 39,653 1971 7 38 33,944 1,150 10,403 207,796 40,530 1972 12 92 39,743 409 6,591 149,697 15,120 1973 9 52 26,009 233 14,309 169,673 13,726 1974 7 157 32,402 200 4,894 128,865 12,381 1975 56 100 (36,060) (117) 1,179 135,624 4,701 give da England onal .a by saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 individual states. New York was included with the >s and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic st did no or 5Zw. fleets ca in 1968 f ught an additional 72,330 metric tons of Atlan rom Division 5Z which cannot be assigned to 5Z e 1C quota £ catches for 1975 are provisional. The total ICNAF 1976 Figures for N.H.. Conn., 1975 in parentheses assume that unavailable landing Del. equal the average of recent years. s in An unreported catch is possible. Shrimps New York and New Jersey have had small shrimp fisheries, but both appear to have collapsed. In New York, landings of shrimp were reported for the period 1921 to 1940 inclusive, with a maximum of about 72 met- ric tons in 1931. In New Jersey the peak year on record was 1929, with a reported catch of about 203 metric tons. No landings were reported in New Jersey from 1966 to 1971 inclusive, but small amounts were recorded in 1972 and 1973. In New York no landings were listed from 1942 to 1971 inclusive, but in 1972 a total catch of about 11 metric tons was reported. According to LoVerde (pers. commun.) these landings were grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio Holthuis or P. vulgaris (Say), which are used as bait by sport fishermen. Recorded commer- cial landings probably do not reflect the total catch. New York Bight lies outside the commercially viable ranges of the two important Atlantic coast shrimp resources used as human food. The commercial shrimp of the Gulf of Maine, Pandalus borealis Kr«fyer, apparently does not come south of Marthas Vineyard. Two of the three commercial species of Penaeus, P. aztecus Ives, brown shrimp, and P. setiferus (Linnaeus), white shrimp, have been recorded as far north as Massachusetts and Fire Island, N.Y. respectively (Wil- liams 1974), but have not supported commercial fisheries north of North Carolina. Another shrimp of potential commercial importance off New York and New Jersey is Dichelopandalus leptoceras (Smith), which occurs in Long Island Sound as well as on the outer continental shelf (Wigley 1960). SEMI-INDUSTRIAL FISHERIES Some species are used as industrial and human food resources, as alewives and Atlantic herring sometimes have been. Quantities allocated to either purpose vary considerably, depending upon the market, availability of other food and industrial species, and other con- siderations. Red hake and silver hake are examples. Among the invertebrates, squids are used partially for in- dustrial purposes, although industrial use of squids is for bait rather than fish meal or animal food. Clams often are used as bait also, but the sport fisherman sometimes harvests his own, and this part of the catch does not enter commercial channels. "Hennemuth, R. C. 1975. Fisheries and renewable resources of the northwest Atlantic shelf. Paper presented at Symposium on Effects of Energy-Related Activities on the Atlantic Continental Shelf, Brook- haven National Laboratory, November 1975, 10 ms p. Red Hake and White Hake Red hake (also called squirrel hake or ling), ( rophycis chuss (Walbaum), is somewhat similar in its dis- tribution, migrations, and life history to silver hake. It is used to some extent as human food, but in New England usually over 90% of the catch is used for industrial pur- poses (Grosslein et al. 1973, see footnote 7). In New Jer- sey only about 10% of the catch is used as animal food, the remainder as human food (Eugene LoVerde pers. commun.). Limited markets sometimes force buyers to limit the amounts they will purchase. A single stock of red hake occupies the Middle Atlantic Bight, most abun- dantly between Cape Cod and Hudson Canyon. Red hake on Georges Bank belong to a distinct and separate stock (Grosslein et al. 1973, see footnote 7). Red hake and white hake, Urophycis tenuis (Mitchill), (Table 5) vir- tually were unutilized until the early 1940s, when war- time shortages of animal protein created a strong de- mand (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1945). Greatest landings in New Jersey, as in New York, were made dur- ing and just following the second world war (Figs. 6, 7). Landings dropped abruptly after 1947, rose somewhat in the middle 1950s, and have fluctuated about a level less than 500 metric tons for the last 20 yr. Landings in New York followed a somewhat similar pattern, but at lower levels than in New Jersey (Fig. 7). This increase may have been stimulated by increased demand for fish dur- ing and immediately after the war. Landings probably were considerably higher in the middle 1960s than statis- tics indicate, for the brief upsurge in landings of un- sorted and unidentified industrial species in New York (McHugh 1972a) probably was composed mainly of red hake, as was the industrial trawl catch in New England (Edwards and Lux 1958). As already noted, the indus- trial trawl fishery off New Jersey took mainly searobins, but small quantities of red hake may have been included. The fishery for white hake is relatively minor (Figs. 6, 7). The two species were not separated in statistics prior to 1933 in New Jersey and 1937 in New York. Recently, white hake landings in both states have been very small (Table 5) as are foreign catches. It is probable that some white hake are included in red hake landings. Foreign fleets began to take red hake in the middle At- lantic region in 1963 (Table 6). In 1966 they caught over 60,000 metric tons, which was almost double the greatest total U.S. catch of this species. Domestic landings drop- ped sharply in 1966, but although foreign catches have WHITE HAKE RED HAKE RED AND WHITE HAKE "~'V^ - ^ 30 40 50 Table 5. — Estimated coiwi and middle Atlantic reg Weights in metric tons. ercial catches of ons of the United white hake in the nortr States coast 1960-1975 Domestic c onmercia 1 catch ICNAF Foreiqn catch Year NY NJ Me-NY incl. NJ-NC incl. 5Z 5Z 6 1960 1 20 2,591 34 1961 * 46 2.316 49 1962 1 49 2,546 52 1963 2 51 2,781 54 1964 1 26 3,111 26 1965 20 2,704 21 1966 22 1,603 22 1967 15 1,255 15 16 1968 1 14 1,261 14 80 1969 2 5 1,158 5 36 1970 2 10 1,844 10 79 177 1971 4 20 2,619 20 4 187 105 1972 3 17 2,999 17 191 1973 1 28 2,471 28 101 1 1974 3 1 26 22 3,780 (3,520) 26 (22) ; 129 Recreat ional taken. catches we re included with red 1 (squirrel hake, atches for 1975 quota for 1976. Figure 6.— Annual commercial landings of red hake and white hake in New Jersey 1887-1975. WHITE HAKE Liable landings than 0.5 Figure 7.— Annual commercial landings of red hake and white hake in New York 1897-1975. 10 -NY NJ-NC Me-NY NJ-NC 190 464 3,609 962 207 349 963 294 349 2,670 1,692 1,509 3,205 3,588 58,572 82,900 38,422 970 128 276 1,815 5,858 39,206 24,592 9,423 14,948 The national saltwater anglin not give data by individual s New England states and New Je quota for red arveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 es. New York was included with y with the other middle Atlanti available landings been greatly reduced, domestic commercial landings have not improved because markets are limited. Red hake and some other species spend winter and ear- ly spring offshore at the outer edge of the continental shelf. There they have been subject to foreign fishing. Ac- cording to Edwards (1968) the fishing fleet of the USSR had been taking the available surplus prior to the spring inshore migration, and this had serious effects on domes- tic fisheries for the species. This led to bilateral agreements with the Soviet Union and Poland under which, among other things, these nations agreed not to fish for red hake and other species in zones at the edge of the shelf between 1 January and 15 April (U.S. Depart- ment of State 1970a, 1970b, 1973a, 1973b). These zones (Fig. 1) include the entire offshore boundary of New York Bight. Later, a somewhat similar agreement was con- cluded with Romania (U.S. Department of State 1973c). The total allowable catch of red hake for 1976 in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 combined has been set at 42,000 metric tons. The estimated standing crop in 1975 is 117,000 met- ric tons (Hennemuth 1975, see footnote 11) down sharply from the period 1963-65 when the standing crop was about 694 million pounds or 315,000 metric tons ac- cording to Edwards (1975, see footnote 10). Red hake also is of growing importance as a saltwater sport fish in the area. Reintjes and Roithmayr (1960) reported that the species ranked fifth in numbers caught in the party and charter boat fisheries of New Jersey in 1954, exceeded only by scup, black sea bass, weakfish, and bluefish. The national saltwater angling surveys es- timated that in the area from New Jersey to Cape Hat- teras inclusive the sport catch of red hake almost tripled from 1960 to 1970, from 350,000 to 900,000 pounds (159 to 408 metric tons). Silver Hake Silver hake or whiting, Merluccius bilinearis (Mit- chill), has been an important commercial species in the New Jersey area since the 1920s (Fig. 8). Most of the catch is taken in otter trawls. Landings in New Jersey, as in New York (McHugh 1972a), were high in the 1940s, dropped sharply in the late 1940s, and stayed relatively low for several years. Landings in both states have risen since the early 1950s, but have fluctuated widely, per- haps partly from differences in recruitment (ICNAF 1973), but also because markets are limited and variable. The 1971 year class was strong and stock size was ex- pected to increase in all divisions of ICNAF subareas 5 and 6. New York landings of silver hake have been somewhat less than in New Jersey, but the major trends have been similar. Graham (1968) pointed out that although silver hake was the most abundant groundfish on New England Banks, the U.S. market could absorb only a small part of the potential harvest at that time. He stated that total domestic landings had decreased since the peak in 1957 and concluded that the catch was controlled by economic forces. This is reflected in widely variable prices paid to fishermen in New York and New Jersey as well (McHugh 1976), l2 and in limits placed by buyers on the amount of hake they would accept. From Nantucket Shoals through the middle Atlantic area, there is a single stock of silver hake which migrates to deep offshore waters at about 150 fathoms (273 m) in winter and moves inshore to depths less than 50 fathoms (91 m) from spring to fall (Grosslein et al. 1973, see foot- note 7). Relative abundance of this stock declined rapid- ly after 1965, but strong year classes in 1971 and 1972 were expected to increase abundance in 1973-74. Estimated maximum sustainable yield of this stock is 69,000 metric tons. The U.S. share of the quota for 1973 'McHugh, J. L. 1976. Trends in fish prices in the New York Bight a. Manuscript in preparation. 90 1900 10 20 30 40 50 Figure 8. — Annual commercial landings of silver hake in New Jersey 1897-1975. was 25,000 tons, of which New Jersey landed 2,928 and New York 876 metric tons. Estimated total maximum sustainable yield for ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 combined is about 150,000 met- ric tons. Total allowable catch for 1976 has been set at 103,000 metric tons. The estimated standing crop in 1975 was about 43% below the level required to produce the maximum sustainable yield (Hennemuth 1975, see foot- note 11). Silver hake and other species important to domestic fishermen concentrate at the edge of the continental shelf in winter and early spring. Bilateral agreements with the USSR and Poland (U.S. Department of State 1970a, 1970b) provide protection for the species from 1 January to 15 April, when they are particularly vul- nerable to fishing (Fig. 1). The decline in silver hake landings in the New York Bight area after World War II probably had economic causes. New Jersey fishermen apparently were unable to compete with the much larger New England fishery (LoVerde 1966), especially in Massachusetts and Maine. Most of the New Jersey catch is made in winter and spring, when higher priced species are scarce in the area. Taylor et al. (1957) suggested that general warming of coastal waters from the 1920s into the 1950s might have been responsible for the drop in silver hake landings in New York and New Jersey, which was especially noticeable in pound net catches. Low prices for silver hake have been a recurrent problem. Another com- plication has been that silver hake are used for indus- trial purposes as well as for human food. Since 1949 (Grosslein et al. 1973, see footnote 7) the proportion of the total U.S. catch of silver hake used as industrial fish has varied from 22 to 78%, the greatest percentages as- sociated with the largest catches. Silver hake apparently is not a major recreational species in the Middle Atlantic Bight (Table 7), but in 1970 it ranked among the first 10 species taken by party boats in New York Bight (Buchanan 1972). Squids Squids have never been of major importance in coastal fisheries of the United States. Rathjen (1973) identified the two most abundant species in this area as long-fin- ned squid, Loligo pealei (Lesueur), and short-finned squid, Illex illecebrosus (Lesueur). Both are taken by domestic commercial fisheries in the New York Bight area, although most of the catch probably is Loligo. In New Jersey and New York most of the catch is taken by otter trawls. Maximum landings reported in New Jersey were about 750 metric tons in 1939 (Fig. 9). Landings have been ir- regularly downward since that time (Table 8). Two major peaks occurred in New York landings, at about 750 met- ric tons in 1939 and about 660 metric tons in 1962. In the United States squids are used mostly as bait, but cer- tain ethnic groups, especially in large cities like New York, value them as food. The highly variable landings, like those of silver hake, probably are related more to rable 7. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of silver lake in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States =oast for the period in which recreational or foreign catch estimates are available. Weights in metric tons. ommercial catch catch ICNAF Foreign catch Year NY NJ i e-NY NJ-NC ncl. incl. Me-NY NJ-NC incl. incl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 1,630 1 733 48,639 1, 1961 1,192 1 670 4-3,805 1, 1962 1,235 1 774 45,569 2, 1963 1,074 1 547 40,336 1 1964 1,417 1 484 41,185 1 1965 1,514 1 692 35,706 1 1966 911 2 050 38,941 2 1967 1,762 2 565 28,934 2 1968 1,502 1 834 34,040 1 1969 949 1 735 18,650 1 1970 463 1 489 18,667 1 1971 480 1 790 13,267 1 1972 1,193 2 468 9,440 2 1973 876 2 925 16,387 2 1974 887 3 185 10,185 3 1975 1.179 2 933 (16,240X2 03 697 81 431 L21 373 70 ,005 ,428 16 ,857 20 ,577 54 ,345 76 ,936 56 ,535 64 181 58, The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not give data by individual states. New York was included with the New England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic states. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Figure 9.— Annual commercial landings of squids in New York and New Jersey 1888-1975. variable demand and price than to fluctuating abun- dance. Japanese trawlers began fishing long-finned squid in the Middle Atlantic Bight about 1969 and started ex- perimental trawling for the short-finned species in 1972 (Rathjen 1973). Fleets of several other nations now take considerable quantities. Edwards (1968) estimated that the standing crop of middle Weight "n'me Le reg arsts catch of squids in the United States coast 196 north and 0-1975. Domestic commercial catch Foreign^ atch Year NY NJ He-NY incl. NJ-NC incl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 1961 470 80 263 1,417 1,092 223 434 Table 9. --Average annual commercial landings of food shellfishes in New Jersey for five major periods in the history the commercial food shellf isheries of the State. Weights in metric tons. 1904-1926 1929-1949 1950-1970 1971-1975 Soft cla Mussels 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1,725 (1,140) 7,769 10,371 21,456 21,841 23,804 20,139 22,295 25,289 13,291 28,900 1965, and 1970 Loligo was 700 million pounds (about 318,000 metric tons). Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) estimated conservatively that the average biomass in the Middle Atlantic Bight is 50,000 to 100,000 tons. The greatest catch on record, domestic and foreign, was about 57,000 metric tons in 1973. Grosslein et al. also concluded that the current rate of exploitation probably is below max- imum sustainable yield (although the 1973 catch of over 57,000 metric tons was near the lower limit of their es- timate and about 50% of their upper limit). These authors were more concerned about the effects of in- cidental catches of species like silver hake, scup, butter- fish, summer flounder, sea bass, and red hake, which are important to U.S. coastal fishermen. If the conservative estimates of squid standing crop are reasonably ac- curate, concern about the squid resource might also be warranted. The 1976 quota placed on the squid catch in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 combined by international agreement is 74,000 tons. FOOD FISHERIES Trends in landings illustrated in Figure 5 have led to the assumption that the history of New Jersey's com- mercial fisheries can be divided into five relatively dis- tinct periods. Tables 9 and 10 have been based on this as- sumption. These five periods were: 1) an initial period in which catches of major species were high, or were rising to a peak (1880-1901); 2) a period (1904-26) in which catches of most species apparently were reduced, and in which only 4 yr of landings were collected; 3) a period of relative prosperity (1929-49), characterized by develop- ment of the trawl fisheries, and in the middle and late Rock c 1940s by the stimulating effects of wartime shortages of animal protein; 4) a decade of rapidly declining catches of almost all species except surf clam and striped bass (1950-70); and 5) a recent 5-yr period of increasing abun- dance and increased catches of several formerly impor- tant species. Consideration of the following discussions by species will make it clear that this division into five periods, although it is a useful generality, oversimplifies the dynamic aspects of the fisheries of New Jersey, as it did for New York (McHugh 1972a). In each period, land- ings of individual species rose and fell, as the resources upon which the fisheries were based varied in abun- dance from natural causes or from fishing, or were more or less available to the fishing fleets for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, the five periods recognized ap- pear to provide a simplified view of the evolution of the fisheries by gears, fishing grounds, and the economics of the industry, as has been explained already. The illustrations are based entirely on reported domes- tic commercial fishery landings. This is because es- timates of domestic recreational catches of marine resources are available only for 3 yr: 1960, 1965, and 1970 and because sport catches and foreign catches have not been reported by waters of individual states. In discus- sions of individual species, however, available infor- mation on recreational and foreign fisheries has been given due consideration. The food fisheries of New Jersey have been dominated by American oyster and hard clam until recently. Since the late 1940s surf clam has been the major species (Tables 9, 10). Important finfishes in the 19th century were American shad, bluefish, weakfish, black sea bass, Atlantic sturgeon, and Atlantic cod. More recently, food fish landings have been dominated by scup. summer flounder, silver hake, and butterfish. But commercial catches of some important species have increased and decreased from time to time for various reasons and some species have become important to sport fishermen, so 13 the State. 1926 1929-1949 1950-1970 1971 Weakf ish Black sea 1,708 1,325 Butterfish Croaker and spot Carp Red hake Silver hake r catches do not agree with total -1949 because flounders were not recorded by 337. In the period 1971-1975 some unclassified re included in the total flounder catch. that commercial landings as an index of total catch exag- gerate declines. Growth of saltwater sport fishing also has introduced difficult sociopolitical complications. Some of the changes in abundance or availability of food fishes as indicated by trends in commercial landings can be explained with some confidence, but much of the interpretation is speculative at best. Scientists generally are much more aware of the complications and uncer- tainties than laymen are, and less likely to be sure about the causes of variations in the catch. When they are reasonably certain, scientists are likely to view the situa- tion differently than laymen do, and when scientists are uncertain, they are less likely to take sides or to make simplified assertions. This tends to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, objective appraisal of the situation and rational interpretation and solution of problems. One way of putting it is to say that, for the most part, in fish- ery management the democratic process leads to identifi- cation of the wrong problems and the wrong solutions (McHugh 1972b). Recreational fisheries in marine coastal waters of the United States have clearly increased in importance, es- pecially as growing prosperity and leisure time have provided opportunities for recreation. However, sport fishing was a popular pastime in certain areas in the 1880s also (Earll 1887; Mather 1887). On the New Jersey coast Barnegat Bay and Atlantic City were favorite sport fishing centers, and it was reported that recreational fishermen gave so much of their catch to local residents that markets for commercial catches were poor. Sport fishing was also popular at many points on Long Island. Mather (1887) in fact included recreational and subsis- tence catches in his estimates of the New York catch, which means that his figures are not comparable with later statistics. Recreational fishing without a doubt has competed significantly with commercial fishing for the available stocks of some species in coastal waters. Declines in com- mercial catches of some resources may have been balanc- ed by increased catches by recreational fishermen. Ex- istence of substantial sport fisheries for some species greatly complicates the problem of obtaining adequate information for management, and for establishing effec- tive management measures if a scientific basis for management is available. Gathering reasonably ac- curate statistics on recreational catch and effort, and en- forcement of regulations on saltwater sport fishing, will be extremely difficult and costly. But, even in the ab- sence of sport fishing, e.g., as in the Pacific sardine and Atlantic menhaden fisheries, it has not been possible to prevent overfishing. Moreover, in many domestic marine commercial fisheries it is questionable whether reasonably accurate statistics have been gathered, or ever will be possible, under our permissive democratic system of government. Because it illustrates rather nicely the evolution of coastal fisheries and the inability of government to manage harvesting of common-property or open-access fishery resources, the ensuing discussion by species has been arranged chronologically in terms of the decade in which New Jersey landings of each resource reached a maximum. Within each decade the resources are ar- ranged in descending order of importance by maximum weight landed. The order of discussion follows the order of arrangement of species in Table 11, but the table also includes all species or groups of species that have been reported at any time as landed in New Jersey. Only about one-third of these species have been selected for discussion. For comparison, a similar table by decades is given for New York (Table 12). American Oyster Historically, American oyster, Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin), has been one of the most important fishery resources of the Middle Atlantic Bight, whether its im- portance is reckoned by weight or by value. Value ex- pressed in dollars is not a good criterion because the real 14 -1890 American oyster Bluefish Atlantic sturgeon Sheepshead Pike or pickerel 8,318 4,214 1,670 Pigfish Pompano 1937 1933 1931-32 -1900 1'iU L920 lo.ll -l'M'i Yellow perch 901-1910 American shad 6,364 1901 Weakfish 5,431 1901 Alewives 1,688 1901 Unclassified eels (probably mostly 618 1901 White perch 577 1901 Atlantic tomcod 120 1901 Catfish and bullheads 117 1901 Haddock 103 1901 Black dr 3,342 2,613 Blue crab Squids Atlantic bonlto American eel Spanish mackerel Northern kingfish King mackerel Grayfish Pollock Red snapper Sandworms Mummichog Bloodworms the following species produced maximum landings of (1930), periwinkles (1932), cunner (1935), American am (1947), tarpon (1962, 1968), redfish (1965). and I1„l-l'i7il 1971-1975 lite hake ;lantic wolffi 8,648 1949 4,189 1945 2,536 1947 2,446 1947 2,307 1950 1,474 1948 1,474 1948 595 1943 162 1943 Gizzard shad 10 1948 ocean pout 8 1943 Pilotfish 8 1949 pinfish 7 1944 Red drum 7 1942 Silver perch " 1945 crunts 3 1950 Atlantic menhaden 220,552 1956 Scup 7,080 1953 Black sea ba s 4,176 1952 Summer flounc er 3,678 1958 Little tunny 328 1952 Unclassified food fis hes 287 1951 Searobins 124 1959 Lfied indus Swordfish Striped bass Winter flounder witch flounder Yellowtail flounder Tilefish L96 -j 1970 L965 1964 1.963 L96 | 1969 1967 15 landings of all fi Decade Species landings Decade Species landings ear 1880-1890 Atlantic menhaden i/l31,059 880 Red fish Atlantic croaker 183 940 American shad 1,965 889 Chub mackerel Shrimp 135 72 931 soft clan, ^1,546 ( 716) ( 880 Sand shrimp 71 67 940 Unspecified eels (probably mostly American eel) 791 889 Cusk Witch flounder Northern kingfish 37 932 937 940 Blue crab i/737 (583) ( z Atlantic halibut American sand lance Banded rudderfish 24 E White perch 227 140 114 890 Red snapper Grouper 13 2 2 937 938 striped mullet 87 889 1941-1950 Yellowtail flounder 5,391 942 King mackerel 84 890 Hard clam 4,686 947 Tautog 83 889 Surf clam 2,940 946 Spanish mackerel 35 890 Silver hake 2,686 943 Sheepshead 10 890 Sea scallop 2.180 950 Horseshoe crab 10 887 Atlantic mackerel 1,663 947 1891-1900 rriMizr 194 897 891 Northern puffer White hake 1,065 576 369 945 94 3 1901-1910 American oyster 9,108 904 Unclassified food fishes 240 949 5,177 5,059 904 Atlantic bonlto 227 173 94 3 1943 Mussels 3,708 908 Conger eel 13B 1944 Suckers 99 901 Atlantic silverside 136 950 Tidewater silverside 90 908 Ocean pout 131 94 3 catfish and bullheads 79 901 American plaice 78 944 Skates and rays 76 " 8 Frigate mackerel 73 94 3 Striped killifish 64 901 Striped anchovy 72 950 Miscellaneous bait 30 908 Little tunny 45 949 Sunfish 6 901 Goosef ish 42 944 1911-1920 Available records she* , no Unclassified sharks 16 943 1921-1930 peak catch in this pe Haddock 7,720 926 Atlantic wolffish 13 946 946 Tlleflsh 1,199 929 1951-1960 Scup 6.495 958 Spot Bloodworms 34 921 929 929 Summer flounder American eel Catfish and bullheads 1,932 1,267 165 32 956 951 951 1921-1930 1931-1940 Sandworms 26 10 3,874 929, 1930 921 929 938 Unclassified industrial fishes Atlantic herring Alewlves Bay scallop 53,486 2,905 1,899 449 966 962 Winter flounder 3,067 938 crayfish 89 967 Butterfish 2,380 939 Razor clam 7 967 Pollock 745 350 939 933 1971-1975 American^lobster 759 971 973 1926), pilotfish (1926), drums (1926, 1932, 1933), rock (1943). white roarlin (1945), dolphin (1948, 1949), and c andings of 1 mecric ton crab (1929, 1930), pigf rappie (1952. 1956). 1/ Estimated landings in New York in 1880 included f comparison with figures for later years, and possibly al is given in parentheses. 2/ Atlantic salmon was virtually eliminated by 1800 igures on recreational . so for New Jersey . Whe 16 value of the dollar changes with time. A study based on standard dollars is in progress (McHugh 1976, see foot- note 12) but for purposes of this discussion the relative importance of oyster and other species will be expressed in weight landed. By this criterion, maximum oyster production in New Jersey has been exceeded only by At- lantic menhaden, surf clam, and Atlantic mackerel (Table 11). This comparison is not completely parallel, however, because oyster landings have been expressed in weights of meats, shells excluded (Table 13), whereas menhaden and mackerel have been reported as weight in the round (live weight). In the 1880s (Earll 1887) a fairly important oyster in- dustry operated as far up Raritan Bay as Keyport and Perth Amboy. Oyster fisheries also were important in Newark Bay. Along the ocean coast of New Jersey, Shrewsbury was a well-known oyster producing area, us- ing seed transplanted from Keyport. The center of oyster production in New Jersey at that time, however, was in Delaware Bay at Maurice Cove. Oysters were abundant in all suitable places in Delaware Bay and the estuary to at least 50 miles up the Bay from Cape May, even in deep water, and in various bays along the ocean coast of New Jersey. In New York waters in the 1880s (Mather 1887) the oyster industry was concentrated at the western end of Long Island, especially in Little Neck and Oyster bays on the Long Island Sound side and Jamaica, Sheepshead, and Great South bays on the south shore. Bluepoints and Rockaway oysters were already well-established trade names. At the eastern end of Long Island oyster produc- tion was small, although some experimental plantings were being tried. Most seed oysters came from bays along the Connecticut shore, but some local sets were ob- tained. Generally, however, setting was unreliable in New York waters. Seed planted in Hempstead Harbor was imported from the south. The relatively important oyster industry of Little Neck Bay obtained its seed from the East River, which is now badly polluted. In most bays along the north shore of Long Island, planting grounds were leased to oystermen by the towns, but in Little Neck Bay there was no such arrangement. There, planters staked out grounds although they had no legal claim, but according to Mather these appropriated rights were respected. In contrast, in Oyster Bay, where the Town leased grounds to private planters, some refused to pay rental fees and defended their claims by force. Oyster production in New Jersey, as in New York, has been dropping irregularly but steadily since records have been kept (Fig. 10). Landings were variable, but ap- parently highest, in the period up to 1931. Some of the short-term fluctuations in oyster production during this period undoubtedly were in response to economic con- ditions, for in the absence of unusual and catastrophic environmental conditions the crop can be held on the bottom for sale when prices are favorable. This could ac- count for the rather wide fluctuations in reported land- ings in the period 1880-1936. In New Jersey, as in New York (McHugh 1972a), the oyster industry prospered from the early 1930s to the early 1950s. The similarity is le 13. --Estimated commercial landings of American oyster the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States st 1960-1975. Weights of meats in metric tons. North Atlantic region Middle Atlantic region Year Me-NY incl NY only NJ-NC incl. NJ only 1960 594(5,826) 368(3,603) 13,005(127,455) 76( 744) 1961 563(5,512) 358(3,505) 13,536(132,653) 499(4,886) 1962 464(4,543) 331(3,241) 10,222(100,176) 705(6,913) 1963 384(3,760) 179(1,752) 8,856( 86,790) 234(2,291) 1964 185(1,811) 97( 950) 10,872(106,550) 498(4,876) 1965 245(2,399) 91( 891) 10,255(100,498) 237(2,321) 1966 266(2,605) 80( 783) 10,295(100,890) 316(3,094) 1967 193(1,889) 46( 451) 12,430(121,815) 466(4,563) 1968 168(1,645) 79( 773) 11,088(108,664) 598(5,865) 1969 166(1,626) 97 ( 950) 10,722(105,071) 481(4,710) 1970 322(3,153) 236(2,311) 11,769(115,332) 303(3,006) 1971 439(4,298) 353(3,456) 12,312(120,659) 385(3,770) 1972 541(5,297) 505(4,945) 12,137(118,945) 777(7,617) 1973 671(6,580) 631(6,189) 11,922(116.840) 633(6,208) 1974 976(9,565) 705 (6,909) 12,141(118,982) 458 (4,498) 1975 996(9,761) 956(9,369) 10,385(101,774) 441(4,322) 1880 90 1900 Figure 10.— Annual commercial landings of American oyster in New Jersey 1880-1975. interesting, because in New York the oyster industry is privately controlled, either on leased bottom or on grounds owned outright, whereas in New Jersey the State controls seed production. In New Jersey, production of oyster meats remained fairly steady for nearly 20 yr. from about 1932 to 1953. The rather sharp collapse in the late 1950s was caused by disease, Minchinia nelsoni (Haskin et al. 1966), formerly known as MSX. This organism also is believed to be present on some Long Island oyster beds (Merrill and Tubiash 1970). Mjst oyster production in New Jersey now comes from Delaware Bay, hence can- not be attributed to the region defined here as New York Bight. Recently (Harold Haskin, pers. commun.), sue cessful setting has increased the supply of seed oysters and there is some hope that production will improve Whether the industry has learned any lessons that will allow it to improve oystering practices and avoid the con ditions that led to the decline remains to be seen Recovery from the low point in 1960, when only about 76 metric tons of meats were produced in New Jersey, has been hampered by periodic closure of the Delaware River 17 seed beds by the State, poor quality of oysters, con- tinued heavy mortality, and competition from other states (Lo Verde 1965-72). In New York also, production of oyster meats dropped sharply in the early depression years of the 1930s, but soon recovered, and remained fairly steady until 1950. Subsequently, weights of meats produced dropped sharply to an historic low, as happened in New Jersey in the late 1950s. Most of the decline of the oyster industry in New York has been attributed not to disease, but to a massive invasion of sea stars, Asterias forbesi (Desor), a serious shellfish predator. Through application of scien- tific culture techniques the industry in New York has shown substantial recovery, from an all-time low of 46 metric tons of meats in 1967 to almost 1,000 tons in 1975 (Table 13). Bluefish Landings of bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix (Lin- naeus), in New Jersey have followed a pattern similar to that in New York. Reported commercial catches were highest at about the turn of the century and the trend has been fairly steadily downward, with resurgences in the early 1930s and recently (Fig. 11). Bluefish is notably variable in abundance, but the reasons for these fluc- tuations are not known. It is probable that, in common with other highly migratory pelagic oceanic fishes, bluefish respond to changes in oceanographic conditions and are not always available on their inshore summer feeding grounds in constant proportion to their total abundance. Bluefish was an abundant species in the 1880s in the New York Bight area. Mather (1887) said that it was in- creasing in abundance at that time. The species also was important recreationally. Bluefish is a popular sport fish in New York Bight and estimated catches are much greater than commercial catches. Thus, the decline in abundance suggested by commercial landings may be more apparent than real. Table 14 shows that recreational and commercial catches of bluefish have been increasing since 1960. Although sport catch estimates are not available by states, the recreational catch is apparently much larger than the commercial catch. This is probably true despite the general view that sport catches may be exaggerated and Table 14.— Estimated commercial and recreational catches bluefish in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast for the period in which recreational foreign catch estimates are available. Weights in metric M \-./v^ 680 90 1900 50 60 Domestic co mmercial catch Recreational catch ICNftF Foreiqn catch Year NY NJ Me-NY NJ-NC incl. Me-NY NJ-NC incl. incl. 5Z W 5Z e 6 1960 188 201 212 544 5,040 11,726 1961 229 210 265 692 1962 344 496 424 1,199 1963 316 3 74 399 1.057 1964 306 246 394 660 1965 470 395 611 810 28,715 7,219 1966 424 458 539 947 1967 250 228 345 693 1968 262 347 366 916 1969 508 309 670 829 1970 726 483 988 1,032 22,753 22,553 1971 550 444 834 1,046 6 17 1972 455 368 684 1,477 2 16 - 1973 640 403 868 2,722 196 6 1974 484 455 728 3,132 14 68 17 1975 404 581 (639) (3,090) 86 Figure 11.— Annual commercial landings of bluefish in New Jersey 1880-1975. The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not give data by individual states. New York was included with the New England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic and Del. equal the commercial catches underestimated. Bluefish is the most important saltwater sport fish in the Bight, in total num- bers and weight of the catch. Bluefish have not been reported in foreign catches in the area until recently. In 1972 it was reported that foreign fleets took 18 metric tons in ICNAF subarea 5. In 1973, in division 5Z, 196 metric tons were reported as caught by foreign fleets, and 6 tons in subarea 6; in 1974 the total catch in subareas 5 and 6 was 99 metric tons. Bluefish are sometimes taken in domestic commercial trawl catches off southern New England in winter, and unusual numbers were taken in the Chesapeake winter trawl fishery in the winters of 1970 and 1971 (Grosslein et al. 1973, see footnote 7). They also are occasionally, al- though rarely, taken in scientific groundfish surveys at depths to about 275 m (Grosslein et al. 1973, see foot- note 7). There is little doubt that bluefish have been un- usually abundant recently and it is not surprising that they have been caught in places and by gears that usual- ly do not take significant numbers, if any. It seems un- likely that the domestic bluefish fisheries are sig- nificantly affected by foreign fishing. Atlantic Sturgeon The history of sturgeon fisheries around the world is a history of early great abundance, followed very soon by virtual collapse of the fishery. In New Jersey average an- nual landings of Atlantic sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrhyn- chus Mitchill, were about 1,600 metric tons for the 3 yr 1887 to 1889 inclusive. The succeeding 7 yr of record from 18 1890 to 1908 inclusive produced an average catch of only about 175 metric tons per year, and although small catches have been reported up to the present time, they have not exceeded 12 metric tons since 1908 (Fig. 12). Shortnose sturgeon, A. brevirostrum Lesueur, also may appear in the catch. New York landings of sturgeon apparently have never been as large as in New Jersey, probably because the State has only one major coastal river, whereas New Jer- sey borders on two. The greatest New York catch on record was 1897, about 194 metric tons. Subsequent land- ings have been small, about the same magnitude as in New Jersey. The rapid early decline in abundance may have had the same cause as in the Great Lakes (Hark- ness and Dymond 1961), where destruction of the resource was deliberate, as many fishermen killed stur- geon to avoid damage to gill nets set for other species. In New Jersey the decline occurred before 1890 (Fig. 12). It testifies to the remarkable resilience of fishery resources that sturgeon has been able to avoid extinction from at- trition by incidental and probably some illegal catches, water pollution, and other effects of man's activities, and that small catches continue to this day (Table 15). Short- nose sturgeon is fairly abundant in the Hudson River (W. L. Dovel pers. commun.). Sea Mussels At least two species of sea mussel, belonging to the genera Mytilus and Modiolus, have been harvested com- mercially in the New York Bight region. The major species is the blue or edible mussel, Mytilus edulis Lin- naeus. Landings in New Jersey have never been very large (Fig. 13), nor have they been in New York, except for a catch of almost 4,000 metric tons of meats reported in 1908. The maximum catch in New Jersey was about 1,144 metric tons in 1897 (Fig. 13), but in most years land- ings have been much smaller than this. During the sec- Figure 13.— Annual commercial landings of sea mussels, probably mostly blue mussel, in New Jersey 1891-1975. Figure 12.— Annual commercial landings of Atlantic sturgeon in New York and New Jersey 1880-1975. Table 16. — Estimated commercial landings of sea mussel probably mostly blue mossel, in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. Weights of meats in metric tons. coast 15.- 196C -Estimated commer th and middle At] -1975. Weights ] cial landings of Atlantic sturgeon of the United States Year North Atlanta Me-NY incl. NY only Middle NJ-NC Atlantic req incl. NJ or ly North Atlantic region Middle Atlantic region Year Me-NY incl. NY c nly NJ-NC incl. NJ only 1960 231( 807) 6( 22) - 1961 287(1 ,006) 8( 29) - 1962 2691 941) 12( 43) - 1963 364(1 .273) 34 ( 118) - 1964 145( 507) 57 ( 199) *( 1) *( 1) 1965 217( 761) 134( 469) *( 1) *( 1) 1966 247 ( 866) 52( 183) 8(29) 8(29) 1967 365(1 ,276) 13( 44) - - 196B 317(1 ,111) 94 ( 329) - - 1969 505(1 ,769) 306(1 .071) - 1970 303(1 ,060) 91( 318) - - 1971 307(1 074) 144 ( 505) - 1972 352(1 232) 225( 788) - 1973 511(1 788) 311(1 .088) - - 1974 359(1 256) 219( 766) 3(10) 3(10) 1975 427(1 496) 48( 168) 7(24) 7(24) 1970 ational 3 id not saltwater angling surveys for 1960 include recreational catches of in , 1965. and vertebrates Live weights are given in ICNAF statistics. parentheses for comparability wi - An unrecorded 19 ond world war, landings in both states rose, especially in New York, as mussels were sought as a source of Vitamin A, but this use was soon ended by development of syn- thetic vitamins. There is a small but steady demand by certain ethnic groups which appreciate the fine flavor of mussels, and these landings have increased somewhat recently (Table 16). If demand were greater, it is almost certain that by wise management of harvesting the natural resource, or by mariculture, the yield could be in- creased considerably. Tautog .A ./v'Wa^, Tautoga onitis (Linnaeus), tautog, is of minor com- mercial importance in the New York Bight region, but of considerable recreational importance (Table 17), es- pecially in the region from New York north. Earll (1887) did not mention tautog as an important species in New Jersey in the 1880s, but Mather (1887) listed it among important species in Long Island Sound. The species is listed by ICNAF under the category "Other ground- fish," but this probably is to accommodate the U.S. catch, for the species is not known to move in significant numbers beyond 12 miles from the coast (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953). Commercial catches in New York and New Jersey apparently have been declining in the long run (Fig. 14). New Jersey commercial landings have almost always been larger than in New York except recently. Tautog is a relatively nonmigratory coastal species with specialized habitat preferences. Commercial catches are taken mostly by pots and traps in New Jer- Table 17.— Estimal tautog In the north and States coast 1960-1975. North Atlantic Middle Atlantic reqlo Me-NY NY incl. only Rec .reational Me-NY incl. Commercial NJ-NC NJ incl. only Rec eational Year NJ-NC 1960 55 5 4,790 21 12 4,454 1961 48 50 4 17 15 24 1963 51 4 26 25 1964 47 9 18 17 1965 42 12 5,014 19 16 69 1966 79 35 9 8 1967 57 37 9 9 1968 65 39 9 8 1969 55 19 6 5 1970 83 35 7.090 10 9 735 1971 55 22 6 6 1972 57 18 14 14 1973 56 22 11 10 1974 59 25 14 10 1975 (95) 50 (16) 15 The national did not give with the New saltwater a data by ind ngling surveys for 1960, 1965 the ot and 1970 included Figure 14.— Annual commercial landings of tautog in New York and New Jersey 1887-1975. sey, pound nets in New York, incidental to catches of other species. There is no evidence that the resource is in poor condition. Catches in the middle Atlantic area appear to be extremely variable, as might be expected with a species near the southern limit of its range. American Shad Once one of the most popular food fishes of the Atlan- tic coast, American shad, Alosa sapidissima (Wilson), has declined to relatively minor importance in the New York Bight area. In upper New York Bay and Newark Bay as well as in the Hudson, one of the most important fisheries in the 1880s was for American shad. Demand for shad in this area, and prices, were said to have declined because the fish had oily flavors (Mather 1887), but shad also were said to be less abundant than formerly. A few shad were caught even in some bays along the south shore of Long Island. The history of commercial landings in New Jersey is similar to the trend in New York, although landings in New Jersey have been considerably higher. This is un- derstandable, because most shad taken in New York waters come from the Hudson River, while New Jersey fishermen can fish in two major rivers, the Hudson and the Delaware. Most of the time more than half the weight of shad landed in New Jersey comes from the Hudson. In New Jersey, as in New York, commercial shad landings have shown two major peaks, one at the turn of the cen- tury and one in the 1940s (Fig. 15). The decline from about 1900 to the 1920s was caused by overfishing, water pollution, and construction of dams, but overfishing was believed to be the principal cause (U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service 1945). The increase which began about 1935 and reached a peak in the 1940s, in New York as well as in New Jersey, was caused by the management program in the Hudson River, which, by reducing fishing effort, allowed more fish to reach the spawning grounds. In part, the second peak was generated by the second world war, when regulations were relaxed to increase the supply of protein. A similar maximum in the 1940s shows in Con- necticut shad landings also. The subsequent drop in 20 \l \ Figure 15. — Annual commercial landings of American shad in New Jersey 1880-1975. catches probably was the result of overfishing during the war, as had been concluded for the New York fishery (Burdick 1954). But continued declines in catches of shad in New York waters apparently had economic rather than biological causes and this probably also was true for New Jersey. The condition of the shad resource of the Hudson River and the circumstances leading to the continued decline of the fishery in New York have been examined in detail by Medeiros (1975). In the Delaware Bay area, as in the Hudson River, fishermen say that shad prices reach their peak in the Philadelphia market before the Delaware River run begins. Low prices often force fishermen to stop fishing before the run hits its peak (Eugene LoVerde pers. commun.). American shad has become a popular sport fish. Reported catches are about as large as commercial Table 18. --Estimated commercial and recreational catches of Americ shad in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. weights in metric tons. North Atlantic req Year Commercial Me -NY NY inel. only Recreational Me-NY incl. Commere NJ-NC incl. ial NJ only Recreational NJ-NC incl. 1960 386 190 - 1.818 355 - 1961 386 138 2,059 287 1962 324 110 2,340 218 1963 239 92 1,984 201 1964 209 64 2,159 195 1965 233 60 656 2,663 178 1,476 1966 163 37 2,070 110 1967 394 51 1,839 113 1968 156 57 2,088 109 1969 153 62 2,025 85 1970 133 48 284 2,863 89 1,919 1971 1972 119 33 1,480 1,701 46 119 1973 65 (40) 1,601 65 1974 (135) (40) 1,038 55 1975 (55) (40) ( 763) 55 The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 not give data by individual states. New York was included with New England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic Recreational catches of shad not recorded in 1960. In 1973 a foreign catch of 308 metric tons of American shad was reported in subdivision 5Ze. No other foreign catches have been reported, but incidental catches are probable. landings for N.Y. catches (Table 18). Commercial catches show substan- tial declines since 1960, but sport catch estimates are less revealing. Estimates for shad were not given in the 1960 sport fishing survey. Estimates for 1965 and 1970 show an increase in shad catches in the middle Atlantic region and a drop in the North Atlantic. But the combined fig- ures suggest a relatively stable sport catch, which may mean that recreational fishermen are taking an increas- ing share of the total shad catch. Present concern about PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the Hudson River will affect recreational and commercial fisheries. A foreign shad catch of 308 metric tons was reported in division 5Ze in 1973. Incidental catches are occasionally made by domestic trawlers operating close to shore. Weakfish Cynoscion regalis (Bloch and Schneider) was a popular food fish in the early fishery. In the 1880s weakfish was taken in Upper New York Bay in fykes and gill nets, and was one of the principal species from May to November along the northern New Jersey seacoast and in Delaware Bay (Earll 1887). In New York waters weakfish was an important recreational as well as a commercial species in Long Island Sound (Mather 1887). At the eastern end of Long Island weakfish was said to be more abundant in the 1880s than the 1870s. It also was an important sport and commercial species along the south shore and at the western end of Long Island. Commercial landings in New Jersey apparently remained relatively high for more than 30 yr, beginning about 1897. The trend in commercial catches has been downward since about 1921 (Fig. 16), but the catch has been highly variable, as is characteris- tic of most fishes of coastal waters, and the three major dips in New Jersey landings, in 1926, 1933, and 1940, were followed rather quickly by major recoveries, al- though the general trend was downward. Perlmutter (1959) found that in the period 1930-49 weakfish on the average was the second most important food fish in com- mercial catches in the area from New York to Virginia. McHugh and Bailey (1957) showed that, over the period 1929 to 1946 inclusive, weakfish was more than three times as abundant in Virginia waters in 1936 as in 1933 and 1940, and that by 1946 abundance was less than one- seventh of the peak year 1936. For nearly two decades no substantial recovery in abundance followed the low year 1950. In 1964 (LoVerde 1965) large numbers of young weakfish appeared off the southern New Jersey coast, and small weakfish. mostly too small to market, were abundant for the next feu- years. In 1969, this strong year class or year classes began to appear in the fishery, and commercial and recreational catches have been increasing more or less steadily in New Jersey and New York waters, as they have been in the Middle Atlantic Bight generally. Weak- fish are said to have returned in abundance to Delaware Bay about 3 yr before abundance increased along the ocean coast of New Jersey (Paul Hamer pers. commun.). but this is reflected neither in commercial landings in Sr>/ Figure 16.— Annual commercial landings of weakfish in New Jersey 1880-1975. and that declining catches in the 1950s and 1960s represented a real decline in abundance. Two things suggest, this and lack of effective management measures suggest that the present period of abundance probably will be temporary. Weakfish, a coastal species, migrates north and south but does not move far offshore. There is no record of foreign catches. Eels that State nor in landings for the entire middle Atlantic region (Table 19). According to Boone (1976) the recent increase in abundance of weakfish along the coast was caused by a strong year class born in 1969. He reported another dominant year class in 1975. As might be ex- pected of a species of southern origin, weakfish landings in New York almost always have been substantially less than in New Jersey. Young weakfish recently have been taken in the Hudson River (W. L. Dovel pers. commun.). Recreational catches of weakfish in the two statistical regions that meet at New York Bight have been es- timated to exceed the commercial catch and the in- crease in sport catches has been relatively greater (Table 19). It is reasonable to conclude that recreational fisher- men probably are taking an increasing share of the total catch and that the resource has increased in abundance recently from natural causes. Thus, the apparent down- ward trend in total abundance may not be real, and the decline in commercial catches probably has been offset by increased recreational catches. Nevertheless, it is clear that this resource fluctuates widely in abundance, Table 19. --Estimated weakfish in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Atlantic Middle Atlanti c region Commercial Recreational Me-NY incl. Year Me-NY incl. NY only NJ-NC incl. NJ only NJ-NC incl. 1960 42 40 241 1 748 239 1,502 1961 25 24 1 965 190 1962 27 22 2 102 295 1963 40 39 1 558 151 1964 26 25 1 997 247 1965 35 33 205 2 282 271 822 1966 12 12 1 597 156 1967 15 14 1 324 207 1968 30 29 1 8 58 242 1969 59 53 2 026 845 1970 144 134 746 3 181 889 6,368 1971 671 580 4 390 1 .398 1972 868 830 6 298 1 ,442 1973 657 575 6 685 1 ,162 1974 884 647 5 669 1 ,218 1975 (620) 620 (7 293) 1 ,982 The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not give data by individual states. New York was included with the New England states and New Jersey with the other middle and Del. equal Two species of eel have been taken in the commercial fisheries of New York and New Jersey, American eel, Anguilla rostrata (Lesueur), caught mostly in pots or traps in estuaries, and conger eel, Conger oceanicus (Mitchill). Conger eel is taken incidentally in otter trawls fishing for other species, and a few are caught in pots. American eel was not mentioned by Earll (1887) as im- portant along the northern New Jersey coast, but in the southern region of New Jersey the species was caught in pots, and also in winter with spears. In New York (Mather 1887) American eel was one of the most impor- tant commercial species in bays along the south shore and western end of Long Island, and in New York Har- bor. American eel also was taken along the north shore of Long Island. It is obvious that American eel was much more important in the fisheries of the 1880s than it is to- day. American eel is the more important species in weight landed. Catches of this species in New York have fluc- tuated considerably and the trend has been slightly downward since landings by species were first recorded in 1935 (Fig. 17). However, recorded catches of eels, probably mostly American eel, were considerably higher in the period 1887 to 1891 inclusive, with an average an- nual reported catch of about 677 metric tons. Trends and levels of catch have been about the same in New Jersey, but landings in that State increased in the 1960s (Fig. 18). Landings of conger eel in both states have dropped to insignificant levels since the 1940s. CONGER EEL JL AMERICAN EEL v\\/A/v'-va_ a , -\, /■ 1880 90 50 60 70 Figure 17. — Annual commercial landings of American and conger eel in New York 1887-1975. 22 Except with certain ethnic groups, eel is not a popular seafood in the United States. The resource in the New York Bight area probably is underexploited. Some enter- prising fishermen have discovered markets for eel in Europe (Anon. 1972) and this probably accounts for re- cent rises in landings in both states. Potential markets also exist in Japan (Folsom 1973). Substantial catches of American eel have been reported in the saltwater sport fisheries (Table 20). The estimated catch is substantially larger in the north At- lantic region than the middle Atlantic. Recently, con- siderable quantities of small American eel have been sold as live bait in New Jersey (Paul Hamer pers. commun.). American eel has not been reported in foreign catches in the Middle Atlantic Bight, but conger eel is taken. V A. V\ 90 1900 -Annual commercial landings of American and conger eel in New Jersey 1887-1975. Table 20. --Estimated commercial and recreational catches American eel in the north and middle Atlantic regions of United States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Atlantic region Middle Atlantic reqion Year Commercial Recreational Me-NY NY Me-NY incl. only incl. Commercial Recreational NJ-NC NJ NJ-NC incl. only incl. 1960 1961 1962 1963 1967 131 67 543 80 1968 169 64 523 53 1969 149 76 628 113 1970 148 61 1.436 806 94 3 36 1971 173 73 828 47 1972 126 67 502 119 1973 99 50 391 105 1974 101 42 1,057 98 1975 (132 44 (909) 100 did not the New states. Englc dat nd twater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 a by individual states. New York was included wi states and New Jersey with the other middle At Ian Figures in N.H. for Com 975 and Del. equal the average of r ecenf years?" in ° S White Perch White perch, Morone americana (Gmelin), a close relative of striped bass, is anadromous. Unlike striped bass, which makes extensive coastal migrations after it has reached an age of about 2 yr, white perch does not migrate far from its home stream. The species was men- tioned by Mather (1887) as being caught in bays along the south shore of Long Island. It apparently was not an important commercial species in the New York Bight area in the 1880s, but white perch undoubtedly was taken by recreational fishermen. Commercial landings apparently were greatest about the turn of the century (Fig. 19), but the catch then fell off to much lower levels. Since the middle 1930s, however, the catch has fluc- tuated between 20 and 110 metric tons, interrupted periodically by declines of short duration, as can be ex- pected of an estuarine species. In the 1960s most of the catch in New Jersey was taken in haul seines, gill nets, fykes, and hoop nets; and most of it was landed, and presumably caught, in counties bordering on the ocean coast. Commercial landings of white perch in New York were apparently considerably smaller than in New Jersey un- til about the middle 1930s (Fig. 19). Since that time land- ings in both states have been relatively small, New Jer- sey landings on the average exceeding those in New York somewhat, as would be expected of a species which has its center of distribution to the south (Table 21). Recreational catches of white perch have been much larger in the middle Atlantic than the north Atlantic Table 21. --Estimated commercial and recreational catches of white perch in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Me-NY incl. Atlantic reqion cial Recreational Middle Atlantic region Commerci NJ-NC al Rec NJ only Year NY only Me-NY incl. NJ-NC incl. 1960 10 8 386 826 26 2,984 1961 10 7 996 34 1962 23 6 1,310 44 1963 47 12 933 29 1964 82 62 614 36 1965 38 17 64 970 42 4,652 1966 40 28 1,355 71 1967 43 37 1,006 54 1968 46 39 1,211 72 1969 46 30 1,366 41 1970 98 75 15 1,011 35 5,712 1971 77 48 1,079 11 1972 61 25 783 48 1973 56 47 596 64 1974 98 58 500 46 1975 (44) 37 (528) 50 le national saltwater angling survey: Id not give data by individual state: Lth the New England states and New J< ;lantic states. for 1960, 1965, and 1970 . New York was included 23 V. ^-> ^^^JL^^JWA^ A. 1880 90 Figure 19.— Annual commercial landings of white perch in New York and New Jersey 1887-1975. area. The northern limit of the species range is about Cape Cod. In the middle Atlantic area, sport catches, like commercial catches, apparently have been in- creasing since 1960 (Table 21). No foreign catches of white perch have been reported, although occasional small catches have been reported in the domestic trawl fishery. These catches almost cer- tainly were made close to shore. Haddock sociated with warming of northwest Atlantic waters in the first half of the present century (Taylor et al. 1957). It is possible that early landings in New Jersey represented an extreme southward extension of the range of the species when coastal waters were on the average cooler. The brief peak of landings at the turn of the century probably was taken in a handline or setline fishery off- shore in winter, primarily directed at Atlantic cod. Most, if not all, of New York landings probably came from Nantucket Shoals and South Channel. Haddock has been a relatively important sport fish in the north Atlantic region, especially in the middle 1960s when the species was particularly abundant (Table 22). It was not sufficiently important from New Jersey south to warrant separate listing in the national surveys of salt- water sport fishing. Haddock has been one of the most important species in the New England trawl fishery and ICNAF has paid special attention to this species. Strong year classes of 1962 and 1963 on Georges Bank provided initial impetus for movement of foreign fleets to Georges Bank and southward. This quickly led to overfishing of the had- dock resource, and the catch is now stringently regulated by quota. The total allowable catch in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 for 1976 has been set at 6,000 metric tons. New Jersey and New York are south of the normal region of major abundance of haddock, Melanogrammus aeglefinus (Linnaeus), although the species does strag- gle as far south as Cape Hatteras in deep water and can be taken off New York and New Jersey in winter. Had- dock was not mentioned by Earll (1887) or Mather (1887) as a component of the fisheries in the 1880s. Maximum landings reported in New Jersey were about 100 metric tons in 1901 and landings have been very small or zero for the last 65 yr (Fig. 20). Landings of haddock have never been high in New York relative to New England land- ings, but have been much higher than New Jersey. The maximum recorded for New York was 7,727 metric tons in 1926. New York landings were relatively high in the 1920s, low in the early 1930s, and high from 1938 to 1946 (McHugh 1972a). Smith (1915) mentioned South Chan- nel (between Georges Bank and Nantucket Shoals) as an important fishing ground for haddock early in the 20th century. Royce et al. (1959) posulated an abundance of haddock on Nantucket Shoals in the late 1920s, and this coincides with peak haddock landings in New York State. In the early 1930s haddock on Nantucket Shoals retreated to Georges Bank, and this was thought to be as- Figure 20.— Annual commercial landings of haddock in New Jersey 1889-1975. :he north and middle Atla the period in which recr Liable. Weights in metri reational catches of haddock b of the United States coast foreign catch estimates are Me-NY NJ-NC Me-NY NJ-NC Year NY Nv r incl. incl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 37 53,841 766 - 77 1961 27 60,600 * 133 1962 37 60,895 - 4,595 1963 40 56,232 1 10,696 1964 21 60,555 17,574 1965 6 60,733 9,694 97,539 1966 10 60,005 1 68,356 107 1967 12 44,664 * 16,730 - 1968 6 32,043 * 430 14,619 42 1969 9 20,788 - 14 5,707 - 1970 3 12,196 1,147 5 2,880 1971 7 9,779 * 123 3,404 - 1972 - 5,328 - 11 1,853 1973 * 3,768 3,731 1 28 2,526 145 1,749 2 The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and not give data by individual states. New York was included New England states and New Jersey with the other middle At 1970 did antic sta quota for haddock r 1975 are provisional. The total ICNAF in subareas 5 and 6 was 6 , 000 metric ton 1976 Figures for 1975 in parentheses assume that unavailable lar N.H., Conn., and Del. equal the average of recent years. dings in Atlantic Cod New Jersey, like New York, is near the southern limit 24 of the range of Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua Linnaeus, and domestic commercial catches have been relatively small and variable (Fig. 21). V vV 1880 90 60 70 Figure 21.— Annual commercial landings of Atlantic cod in New Jer- sey 1880-1975. In the 1880s in New Jersey a small winter cod fishery operated within 6 miles of shore, using handlines and longlines (Earll 1887). This fishery probably was respon- sible for the brief peak in haddock landings in the late 1800s and early 1900s. New York also had an offshore winter cod fishery in the 1800s (Mather 1887). At this time New York City was already a major point of landing for fish and shellfish from as far away as New England. Atlantic cod was the major species at 9.25 million pounds (about 4,000 metric tons). Most of the Atlantic cod catch is taken from Novem- ber to March inclusive, and little or nothing the rest of the year. The trend of landings has been down since 1930, timated commercial and recreatic rth and middle Atlantic regions period in which recreational or lal catches of Atlant >f the united States foreign catch estima commercial catc Recreational catch ICNAF tch Year NY NJ Me-NY NJ-NC incl. Me-NY NJ-NC incl. 5Z W 5Z e 6 1960 453 1,613 16,444 1,872 11 426 2,590 19 1961 529 1,091 19,657 1,477 278 1962 467 673 20,400 878 7 849 1963 400 502 18,499 632 13 049 1964 234 128 17,405 171 12 840 1965 166 75 16,253 99 13 144 421 26 923 1966 112 7 17,027 18 41 069 75 1967 207 24 20,106 33 23 592 3 1968 165 78 22,209 116 454 27,334 74 1969 204 56 26,009 74 627 20,296 248 1970 172 85 24,054 89 16 188 104 235 10,439 179 1971 194 62 24,517 26 1,148 10,600 103 1972 107 19 20,956 22 1,146 10,344 163 1973 151 39 22,717 40 1,715 10,892 114 1974 210 153 26,272 156 673 8,149 132 1975 195 140 (24,500) (147) 151 8,610 222 The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, not give data by individual states. New York wa New England states and New Jersey with the other 1965, and 1970 did i included with the middle Atlantic sta )tal ICNAF 1976 iilable landings in although there was a brief upsurge in the late 1950s and early 1960s as cod showed up in greater abundance in local waters. Landings in New York are made throughout the year, although most of the catch is taken in winter. An extensive review of the cod fisheries and life history of the species has been published by Jensen (1972). Estimates of recreational catches of cod have been of the same order of magnitude as domestic commercial catches (Table 23) in the north Atlantic and the middle Atlantic regions. In New York Bight the sport fishery for cod is largely a winter fishery (Buchanan 1972; Jensen 1974), although catches also are made in spring and fall. Foreign catches of cod reached a maximum in ICNAF division 5Z in 1966 and subsequently have fallen off to about 25' r of the 1966 level (Table 23). Catches in sub- area 6, like domestic commercial and recreational catches, have been relatively small. In the New York Bight area, the cod catch appears to be shared about equally by domestic commercial fishermen, sport fisher- men, and foreign fishermen. The total allowable catch in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 for 1976 has been set at 43,000 metric tons. Atlantic Croaker In the New York Bight area croaker, Micropogon un- dulatus (Linnaeus), is near the northern limit of its geographic range. In New Jersey (Fig. 22) the species was recorded in commercial catches from 1897 to 1975, but the period of major landings was from the middle 1930s to mid-1940s. The annual weight landed during this period was more than 10 times the New York catch. Commercial landings have been reported in New York only for the period 1926-46 inclusive (Fig. 23) plus a small catch in 1973, with peaks at about 150 metric tons in 1929 and 1930 and 183 metric tons in 1940. In Vir- y a^. a v. .^-^ 1 ATLANTIC CROAKER "V \,>l,., .J ATLANTIC CROAKER AND SPOT COMBINED V V^v .. . / Figure 22.— Annual commercial landings of Atlantic croaker and spot in New Jersey 1889-1975. 25 ^ ATLANTIC CROAKER ATLANTIC CROAKER AND SPOT COMBINED 1880 90 60 70 Figure 23. — Annual commercial landings of Atlantic croaker and spot in New York 1888-1975. ginia, where croaker once was extremely abundant, relative abundance was lowest in 1931, highest in 1939 and 1943, and had dropped virtually to zero by 1945 (McHugh and Bailey 1957). This undoubtedly was a period of unusual abundance of croaker, and a period of heavy exploitation also (Perlmutter 1959), which may ac- count at least partially for the sharp drop in landings after World War II. Croaker also are notoriously variable in abundance, and the magnitude of such fluctuations would be expected to be greatest at the extremes of the geographic range. Recent rising commercial catches in New Jersey and an isolated landing in 1973 in New York, the first reported since 1946, are suggestive of local in- creases in abundance. In Maryland phenomenally suc- cessful croaker spawnings have been reported in 1974 and 1975 (Boone 1976), after two decades of virtual spawning failures. This may presage continued improvement in local catches of croaker. Atlantic croaker was mentioned neither by Earll (1887) nor by Mather (1887) as a species taken in New Jersey and New York fisheries in the 1880s. The desirability of croaker as a food fish was not recognized widely at that time. Either circumstance, temporary low abundance, or lack of demand could account for the apparent absence of Atlantic croaker from the New York Bight area at that time. According to the national saltwater angling surveys the recreational catch of Atlantic croaker now is con- siderably larger than the commercial (Table 24). This catch plus attrition from incidental catches in various commercial gears may be responsible for continued small commercial landings. Croaker is essentially a species of shallow coastal waters. June and Reintjes (1957) found that it was the fifth most important species in weight landed in the in- shore otter trawl fishery off Delaware Bay in the period 1946-53, but it ranked only 11th in the offshore fishery. The inshore fishery operates within the 15-fathom (28 m) curve, the offshore fishery out to the edge of the con- tinental shelf. The species has not been recorded in foreign catches but it is possible that small incidental catches could be made. Table 24. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of Atlantic croaker in the middle Atlantic region of the United States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. Commercial Recreational NJ-NC NJ NJ-NC Year incl. only incl. 1960 3,002 4 3,352 1961 2,242 26 1962 1,348 2 1963 1,089 - 1964 1,026 - 1965 1,491 - 2,152 1966 1,239 - 1967 729 - 1968 548 - 1969 649 - 1970 424 * 1,737 1971 551 1972 2,084 * 1973 2,611 17 1974 3,510 20 1975 (7,483) 401 The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 19 and 1970 did not give data by individual states. N York was included with the New England states and N Jersey with the other middle Atlantic states. The only catch of Atlantic croaker reported in New in this period was a commercial catch of less than metric ton in 1973. Figures for 1975 in parentheses assume that unavail landings in N.H., Conn., and Del. equal the average Spot Spot, Leiostomus xanthurus Lacepede, does not extend as far south as Atlantic croaker. Earll (1887) men- tioned spot as important off the southern part of New Jersey in the 1880s, but not in the north. The species was not mentioned in Mather's (1887) account of New York fisheries. In New Jersey spot went by the quaint name "Cape May Goodies." Landings of spot in New Jersey have been much smaller than croaker landings. The maximum recorded catch was about 600 metric tons in 1943 (Fig. 22). The species also is variable in abundance, but the magnitude of fluctuations in landings has been somewhat less than for croaker, and fewer years of no landings have been recorded. A slight increase in commercial landings in New Jersey in 1975 is suggestive of increased abun- dance. In New York spot have appeared in commercial land- ings for more years than croaker and maximum land- ings have been somewhat greater, 198 metric tons in 1926 and 190 in 1943~ (Fig. 23). Spot have not been reported in commercial landings in New York since 1957. Boone (1976) reported that abundance of young-of-the- year spot in Chesapeake Bay in 1975 was the greatest on record, but that a massive winter kill may have reduced this dominant year class drastically. This is an important recreational species in the mid- dle Atlantic region (Table 25). The reported catch in 1970 was nearly 10,000 metric tons, considerably greater than any commercial catch on record. Table 25.— Estimated commercial and recreational catches of spot in the middle Atlantic region of the United Stat coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. 1880 90 Figure 24. — Annual commercial landings of butterfish inKew Jersey 1889-1975. I960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1,474 1,631 1,091 2,033 1,209 1,020 3,402 1,242 1,163 3,139 7,989 3.586 (4,703) The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not give data by individual states. New York was included with the New England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic states. No domestic commercial or recreational catches of spot were reported north of New Jersey from 1960 to 1975 Figures for 1975 in parentheses assume t landings in N.H., Conn., and Del. equal landings in New Jersey (Fig. 24) has been similar to that for New York (McHugh 1972a). Neither Earll (1887) nor Mather (1887) mentioned the species as occurring in New York Bight catches in the 1880s. A maximum was reach- ed about 1940 in both states at levels of about 2,500 met- ric tons each. Landings dropped to a minimum about 1950, rose sharply immediately thereafter, and have trended downward ever since. Peaks in 1951 in New Jer- sey and in 1952 in New York were produced almost en- tirely by increased catches in otter trawls. This suggests that a relatively strong year class moved up the coast farther offshore than usual and that it reached New York waters a year later than New Jersey. This might have been a wave of older fish from a strong southern contin- gent. Colton (1972) reported that coastal water tem- peratures were higher than average at that time. He also concluded that butterfish respond to temperature change by shifting their range north or south. Most butterfish landed in New Jersey are caught in otter trawls. In the period 1946 to 1953 inclusive June Table 26. — Estimated commercial catches of butterfish in the nort and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. Spot favor even shallower waters than croaker. The species was a minor component of inshore otter trawl catches off Delaware Bay from 1946 to 1953 inclusive (June and Reintjes 1957) but was not reported in off- shore catches. It is not likely to be taken by foreign fishermen. Although it is subject to much the same environmen- tal stresses and fishing pressures as croaker, spot has shown no downward trend in abundance in the Middle Atlantic Bight as a whole, as croaker and many other coastal species have. Commercial landings have declined in New Jersey and New York and this apparently has not been balanced by increased sport catches, although in the middle Atlantic region the recreational catch was up sharply in 1970 (Table 24). Why spot has survived stresses in some areas that have driven many other species with similar habits to historically low levels of abundance is unknown. Butterfish The pattern of butterfish, Peprilus triacanthus (Peck) Domest NY NJ nmercial Me-NY incl. catch NJ-NC incl. ICNAP Foreign catch Year 5Z W 5Z e 6 1960 834 1 ,063 3.315 1,671 1961 764 1 ,070 2,652 1,987 1962 730 958 3,533 1,794 1963 523 626 3,248 1,366 ,779 111 1964 484 539 1,785 1,164 169 316 1965 348 536 1,013 2,097 732 17 1966 269 669 806 1,882 3 ,865 - 1967 508 595 1,125 1,293 1 ,407 908 1968 442 330 930 703 948 648 3,513 1969 346 754 924 1,332 8,813 702 3,623 1970 237 441 563 1.229 1,203 916 6,906 1971 160 565 694 898 655 612 4,906 1972 187 224 365 380 556 1.298 3.720 1973 303 468 956 578 3,027 3,576 11.213 1974 362 444 1,243 1.453 3,192 3,006 4.087 1975 562 388 (1,438) (521) 1,854 1.514 4.968 provisional. Thi unreported catch is possible. 27 and Reintjes (1957) found that the species was more im- portant in the offshore trawl fishery off Delaware Bay than inshore. Although butterfish will bite on small hooks, there is no significant recreational catch. Butterfish is a semipelagic species not readily available to conventional gears like otter trawls, pound nets, or other gears traditionally used by U.S. fisher- men. Edwards (1968) estimated that only about 3% of the standing crop was being harvested in the period 1963- 65. Thus, declines in landings in New Jersey and New York up to that time could not have been caused by over- fishing. From 1964 on, however, foreign catches in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 have increased (Table 26), and it is possible that the resource is now fully utilized (R. L. Edwards pers. commun). Foreign catches in the early and middle 1960s probably were substantially larger than reported, for it is known that butterfish were dis- carded in some quantities by some vessels. Foreign fleets now take substantially larger quantities than the domes- tic fishery. Like scup, red and silver hake, and other species, butterfish is particularly vulnerable to fishing in winter and early spring at the edge of the continental shelf. Blue Crab Blue crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, was abun- dant in coastal waters of the New York Bight area in the 1880s (Earll 1887; Mather 1887). The species supported commercial, subsistence, and recreational fisheries in most bays along the coasts of New Jersey and New York. It apparently was scarce at that time in some bays along the north shore of Long Island, but abundant in others, such as Huntington Bay. Blue crab also was abundant in New York harbor, but even in those days, nearly a cen- tury ago, fishermen described a coating of "coal tar" on the water and complained of oily flavors of blue crab and some fishes. Possibly for this reason, no commercial blue crab fishing was conducted in that area (Mather 1887). Blue crab ranges along the east coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, and supports or has supported fisheries from southern New England to Texas. Chesapeake Bay has traditionally been the center of commercial production and landings north of Maryland have been relatively small and variable. Maximum commercial landings reported for New Jersey were slightly over 2,000 metric tons in 1939, but this was unusual, and since 1940 New Jersey land- ings have fluctuated about a level less than 500 metric tons and dropped to a low of less than 100 metric tons in 1968 (Fig. 25). Recently, however, various observers have noted increased abundance of blue crab from Delaware to Connecticut inclusive. This has been reflected in a sharp increase in commercial landings in New Jersey, from a low point of 61 metric tons in 1968 to 1,319 metric tons in 1975 (Table 27); this is the second largest commercial catch on record for the State. Although it is eagerly sought by recreational crabbers wherever it is abundant, and sport catches probably are substantial, blue crab usually has been ignored in salt- ^y Figure 25. — Annual commercial landings of blue crab in New Jersey 1880-1975. Table 27. --Estimated com north and middle Atlanti 1960-1975. Weights in m Year Me- NY incl. NY only NJ-NC incl. NJ only 1960 2 * 40,571 703 1961 2 * 41,909 319 1962 1 46,476 753 1963 * 39,221 406 1964 * 47,022 263 1965 * 50,078 426 1966 - 53,214 313 1967 - 44,421 213 1968 - 34,296 61 1969 - 38,225 286 1970 * 41,810 253 1971 * 42,095 530 1972 - 41,734 658 1973 - 33,145 1,177 1974 1 1 39,252 1,302 1975 - (34,450) 1,319 The nationa 1970 did no saltwater angling surveys for 1960, include recreational catches of inv 1965, and Unrecorded c York in 197 °™ee C tex t r CheS °' "" "* ""* Figur nqs for 1975 in parenthe N.H., Conn., and es assume that unavailable Del. equal the average of - An unr eported catch is possible. * Les 3r sp ort fit 0.S metric ton. hing surveys. Levenson (1971 ) found t blue crab was important in recreational fisheries of Hempstead Bay, Long Island. In numbers caught, blue crab ranked fifth in importance from 1966 to 1968 in- clusive, exceeded only by winter and summer flounder, bluefish, and northern puffer. This was a period of low abundance in the New York Bight area, if commercial landings are a valid criterion (Table 27). As already mentioned, Earll (1887) noted the recreational importance of blue crab in New Jersey coastal bays. Some idea of the intensive effort directed toward catching this resource is given by the statement that some 600,000 to 700,000 recreational crabbers over 18 yr operate in New Jersey tidal waters (Paul Hamer pers. commun.). Lane and Carlson (1968) observed that blue crab had not been of commercial importance in Connecti- cut waters since the 1930s, and linked the decline and 28 recent recovery of crab stocks with the decline and recent recovery of eelgrass beds. Blue crab is an estuarine and coastal species, not caught far from shore north of Cape Hatteras. It is not reported in foreign catches and is not likely to be taken by foreign fleets in the Middle Atlantic Bight. It is interesting to speculate on the reasons for the re- cent increase in abundance of blue crab in the New York Bight area. It has increased in abundance in coastal bays of New York State in the last few years, and in 1974 a small commercial catch was reported for the first year since 1961. Commercial catches were made in 1975 also, although none was recorded in official statistics. In Great South Bay, for example, clam rakers at times took sub- stantial incidental blue crab catches, as much as 10-12 bushels per day (John MacNamara pers. commun.). Blue crab is notoriously variable in abundance in Chesapeake Bay, which produces most of the Atlantic coast catch, and it would be expected to be even more variable at the northern end of its geographic range. In Chesapeake Bay, despite wide variations in abundance from time to time, the trend of landings has been upward since 1890 (Mc- Hugh 1969b). It has been suggested that this has been the result of a real increase in abundance which might have been caused by increased nutrient supply in the es- tuaries. In the Middle Atlantic region, commercial land- ings showed a similar upward trend from 1931 to the 1950s, with much wider fluctuations, presumably of natural origin, but this was followed by a sharp and fairly steady decline from 1957 to a very low level in 1970 (Mc- Hugh 1972a). It was suggested that if the early rise were indeed stimulated by nutrient enrichment, the sharp decline in the late 1950s and the 1960s in this more dense- ly populated section of the coast could contain a warning. Under no circumstances could a continued increase in nutrients be expected to present favorable conditions to the blue crab resource indefinitely, and the danger is heightened by the growing loads of industrial wastes, in- cluding heavy metals and pesticides, that go along with increased population. Crabs, being much more closely related morphologically and physiologically to insects than fishes are, can be expected to respond more readily to certain insecticides (Butler 1966). The unanswered question then arises: Is the recent sharp increase in abundance of blue crab in the New York Bight area a transitory phenomenon, or has the ban on DDT and other organophosphates had some effect? Atlantic Bonito In New Jersey and New York Atlantic bonito, Sarda sarda (Bloch), has been taken almost entirely by pound nets. In common with other highly mobile pelagic fishes of the high seas it is caught erratically in fixed coastal gears (Fig. 26). The sharp decline in landings after the second world war probably was related mainly to the decline of the ocean pound net fishery. Landings in New York have shown generally the same pattern of fluc- tuations but the catch usually has been less than in New Jersey. -A.-,n. riii Figure 26.— Annual commercial landings of Atlantic bonito in New York and New Jersey 1880-1975. Recreational catches of bonito usually have been larger than commercial catches, sometimes by an order of mag- nitude, but sport catches also have been highly variable (Table 28). Table 28.--ERtimat Atlantic bonito in the United States ial and recreational catches of orth and middle Atlantic regions of 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Atlantic reqion Middle Atlantic region Commercial Recreational Me-NY NY Me-NY incl. only incl. Commercial Recreational Year NJ-NC NJ NJ-NC incl. only incl. The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, 1970 did not give data by individual states. New York included with the New England states and New Jersey wi the other middle Atlantic states. An unreported The species has not been reported separately in foreign catches in the Middle Atlantic Bight, and it can be con- cluded that it is not an important species in those fisheries. In the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, the average annual catch of bonito in the period 1963 to 1972 inclusive has been about 10,260 metric tons (Miyake et al. 1973). Spanish Mackerel Scombcromorus maculatus (Mitchill), Spanish mack- erel, is primarily a southern fish. In the 1880s (Mather 1887) it was taken in the ocean off the eastern end and south shore of Long Island, but although described as once plentiful, was scarce by 1880. Earll (1887) did not mention catches off New Jersey. The major commercial fishery is south of Cape Hatteras, Spanish mackerel, a schooling fish, makes annual migrations northward in summer. Modest commercial landings have been re- ported in New Jersey and New York, and as might be expected of a species of southern origin these landings were usually higher in New Jersey. Maximum recorded landings in New Jersey were about 107 metric tons in 1931, and 35 metric tons in New York in 1890. Since the middle 1940s catches in both states have been negligible. Since 1960 maximum landings in the middle Atlantic region (N.J. to N.C. inclusive) were 120 metric tons in 1970, less than 1 ton of which was reported from New Jersey. Spanish mackerel is a popular sport fish where it is abundant. Reported recreational catches in the middle Atlantic region were 429 metric tons in 1970 and 76 tons in 1965. Commercial catches in the same area in the same years were 120 and 87 metric tons respectively. This is a coastal species, unlikely to be taken by foreign fishermen. The life history is not well under- stood. Fluctuations in landings suggest that the species varies widely in abundance or availability, or both. northern kingfish the united States in the north an coast 1960-1975 a middle Atla . Weights in metric tons. North Atlantic reqion Commercial Recreational Me-NY NY Me-NY incl. only incl. Middle Atlantic reqion Commercial NJ-NC NJ incl. only Recreational Year NJ-NC 1960 1 1 363 470 15 713 1961 2 1 776 10 1962 2 1 670 22 1963 1 1 531 5 1964 5 5 565 10 1965 3 3 108 653 379 10 606 1967 4 4 397 4 1968 10 9 335 6 1969 6 5 405 4 1970 22 21 1,568 306 4 1,090 1971 21 21 233 3 1972 7 7 3 24 3 1973 * 207 1 1974 1 * 153 * 1975 (*) (109) 1 The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not give data by individual states. New York was included with the New England states and New Jersey with th other middle Atlantic states. Northern Kingfish Menticirrhus saxatilis (Bloch and Schneider), northern kingfish, is more important in the New York Bight area as a recreational than as a commercial species (Table 29). Maximum commercial landings in New Jer- sey were about 70 metric tons in 1939, and in New York about 35 metric tons in 1940. It is caught mostly by trawls fishing near shore and by pound nets. In the sport fishery in the surf along the south shore of Long Island, Briggs (1962) found that northern kingfish was the dominant species from 1956 to 1960. According to later studies (Briggs 1965, 1968), it had become somewhat less abundant in New York waters. The species is a seasonal visitor, arriving in New York Bight in spring and leaving in fall. Like many seasonal mi- Figure 27. -Annual commercial landings of northern kingfish in New York and New Jersey 1908-1975. grants from the south its local abundance is highly variable (Fig. 27). This variability was noted also by Mather (1887) who described northern kingfish as less abundant in New York waters in 1880 than formerly. In recreational fisheries along the New Jersey coast in 1952 and 1953 (June and Reintjes 1957), northern king- fish varied in importance. In numbers of fish caught it ranked about fifth in the surf fishery, fourth in the char- ter boat fishery, and sixth in the party boat fishery. In the surf fishery in Delaware in 1952 it ranked third. No catches have been reported by foreign fleets. It is not likely that this shallow-water coastal species would be taken far out on the continental shelf. In the period 1946 to 1953 inclusive it was a minor species in the in- shore trawl fishery off Delaware Bay but not listed in the offshore fishery (June and Reintjes 1957). Atlantic Mackerel The pattern of commercial mackerel, Scomber scom- brus Linnaeus, landings in New Jersey (Fig. 28) has been similar to that in New York, with catches relatively large in the 1940s, very small in the 1950s and early 1960s, and increasing moderately in the last 10 yr. In most years, New Jersey landings have been substantially higher than New York. The sharp drop in the late 1940s was caused primarily by a sudden drop in abundance or availability (Hoy and Clark 1967). In the last few years, most of the New Jersey catch has been taken in otter trawls, most of the New York catch in pound nets. Increasing catches in the last decade, despite substantial declines in numbers 30 P7 V ./* VL 90 1900 20 30 40 50 Figure 28.— Annual commercial landings of Atlantic mackerel in New Jersey 1889-1975. of otter trawls and pound nets licensed in both states, reflect an increase in abundance of mackerel, as pointed out by Edwards (1968). Taylor et al. (1957) concluded that temperature was a major factor governing fluc- tuations in mackerel landings, but their argument is not very convincing. The domestic commercial fishery for mackerel is now relatively unimportant (Table 30) because demand is relatively poor. Despite the greater popularity of Atlantic mackerel as a food fish a century ago it was not mentioned by Earll (1887) or Mather (1887) as taken in the New York Bight area in the 1880s. New Jersey and New York combined presently receive 10-20% of total domestic commercial landings. As would be expected from the known geographic dis- tribution of Atlantic mackerel, sport catches are larger in the north Atlantic region (Table 30). The recent in- crease in abundance is reflected in recreational catches rcial and recreational catches of Atlantic niddle Atlantic regions of the United State Lch recreational or foreign catch estimates commercial catch 1965 41 294 1,475 489 I .168 417 2 487 53 1966 182 248 2,090 636 5 455 1 252 1967 163 182 3,356 509 12 691 6 295 1968 368 304 2,927 527 21,127 26 246 8 268 1969 223 134 3,781 260 38,742 25 259 43 176 1970 167 593 2,914 721 18,816 13 ,267 37,203 66 204 101 030 1971 228 444 1,831 504 38,592 64 621 231 491 1972 247 685 1,610 713 62,614 133 859 1S5 865 1973 147 524 1,276 539 159,201 155 006 65 153 1974 146 351 654 407 50,076 100 574 142 348 1975 162 679 (738) (1,049) 46,998 119 109 82 611 The national saltwater give data by individua England states and New angling surveys for 1960, 1965, 1 states. New York was included Jersey with the other middle At and 1970 did not antic states. Foreign catches for 1975 are provlsiona quota for Atlantic mackerel in subareas 5 Th e total ICNAF 1976 6 was 254,000 met ric tons Figures for 1975 in pa N.H., Conn., and Del. equaTthe average' of t unavailable la dings in in 1970, especially in the middle Atlantic region. Atlan- tic mackerel is important seasonally in certain ocean sport, fisheries in New York Bight (Buchanan 1972). This increased resource now is being exploited very heavily, mostly by foreign fleets, and according to Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) may be overfished. Hard Clam Trends in hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria (Lin- naeus), landings in New Jersey have been similar in their major features to those in New York. Hard clam was an important resource in most areas around the coasts of Long Island in the 1880s (Mather 1887) but apparently not in New Jersey, because the species was not mentioned by Earll (1887). Reported land- ings in both states were relatively high in the last two decades of the 19th century, dropped sharply and stayed relatively low until the 1930s, rose to maxima in the late 1940s and early 1950s, dropped sharply again, and sub- sequently rose in the 1960s (Fig. 29). In New Jersey the recent rise in landings reached a peak in 1967 and catches have been dropping since. In New York, landings began to drop after 1971, but 1975 was a record year. Ex- perienced clam diggers on Great South Bay believe that clam abundance has decreased and that the resource is already overharvested. Total catches in New York have been holding up and were slightly higher in 1975 than in 1971, mainly because numbers of clammers have in- creased substantially (Table 31). In Rhode Island, once a major producer of hard clam, landings have declined to less than 20% of the maximum harvest of about 5 mil- lion pounds (2,300 metric tons) in 1955. The sharp decline in New Jersey hard clam landings in the 1950s was caused at least in part by closing of cer- tain polluted shellfish areas. The problem culminated in an outbreak of hepatitis in 1961, which affected the shell- fish industry seriously through loss of public confidence (Dewling et al. 1972). The subsequent rise in the middle and late 1960s has been attributed to an improvement in public confidence and hence demand, increased abun- dance in some areas, depuration, and opening of some grounds previously closed by pollution. Most hard clam production in New Jersey comes from AJ V Figure 29. — Annual commercial landings of hard clam in New Jersey 1880-1975. 31 Table 31. --Estimated commercial landings of hard and middle Atlantic regions of the United States Weights of meats in metric tons. North Atlantic reqion Middle Atlan tic reqion Year Me-NY incl. NY only NJ-NC incl. NJ only 1960 4,052(28,773) 1,763(12,520 2,405(17,075) 1,158(8,222) 1961 4,080(28,970) 1,946(13,819 2,303(16,351) 765(5.434) 1962 3,882(27,559) 2,194(15,578 1,831(13,003) 607(4,313) 1963 4,217(29,943) 2,409(17,103 2,160(15,336) 718(5,101) 1964 4,083(28,992) 2,451(17,401 2,428(17,238) 859(6,101) 1965 4,161(29,545) 2,698(19,153 2,394(16,997) 849(6,030) 1966 4,424(31,411) 2,985(21,196 2,361(16.762) 1,213(8,611) 1967 4,520(32,092) 3,205(22,757 2,510(17,819) 1,306(9,272) 1968 4,353(30,908) 3,169(22,501 2,391(16,975) 1,158(8,222) 1969 4,635(32,908) 3,409(24,204 2,426(17,224) 1,027(7,293) 1970 4,778(33,922) 3,586(25,460 2,188(15,535) 1,169(8,300) 1971 5,023(35,661) 3,878(27,531 2,262(16,060) 1,112(7,895) 1972 4,435(31,489) 3,856(27,375 1,852(13.151) 996(7,073) 1973 3,858(27,389) 3,287(23,338 1,699(12,059) 859(6,101) 1974 4,081(28,975) 3,642(25,856 1,641(11,651) 790(5,609) 1975 4,450(31,595) 3,932(27,914 1,384( 9,828) 735(5,218) iltwater angling i clam probably are substantial. re given in parentheses for comparability the bays of the outer coast. In the early days, Raritan and Sandy Hook bays were important clamming grounds, but the entire area is now closed for shellfish harvesting except in Sandy Hook Bay and adjacent waters, where a special permit is needed. Since 1900, landings in New Jersey have been roughly half the volume produced in New York. In 1975 New Jersey produced only 735 metric tons of meats compared with 3,932 metric tons in New York. Although both states, or local communities in these states, have sponsored programs to transplant clams from polluted to clean waters, management of the hard clam resource has been primarily negative management. That is, waters over shellfish beds are monitored to assess water quality, and grounds are closed when fecal coliform counts reach certain levels. There is reason to believe that commercial landings are underestimated, and in both states there are substantial unrecorded recreational and subsistence clam fisheries. Programs to assess the magnitude of standing crops, recruitment, and removals by natural mortality and harvesting are badly needed. Clams and other nonmigratory resources should be considered the most valuable living marine resources of a state because management of such resources does not require cooperation from adjacent states or other nations. If the state or local community desires to main- tain the resource in healthy condition and to manage the harvest for maximum yield, it has the power to do so. This is not possible with migratory resources. Therefore, if management of living marine coastal resources is to succeed, coastal states like New Jersey and New York should demonstrate their good intentions, and establish model fishery management programs, by concentrating first on their valuable estuarine shellfish resources. The Town of Islip on Long Island, which shares with the State of New York control over some 22,000 acres of bottom in Great South Bay, recently has started such a research and management program. A cooperative program with adjacent towns also is under consideration. Several other towns on Long Island have shellfish management programs in various stages of development. In Great South Bay, N.Y., and possibly also in the coastal bays of New Jersey, recent increases in abun- dance of blue crab may have reduced the supply of hard clam. Crabs, especially blue crab, are serious predators of clams, and this may account for indications of reduced recruitment of young clams in the past few years. Soft Clam In the 1880s soft clam, Mya arenaria Linnaeus, was abundant in most bays of the New Jersey coast and around Long Island (Earll 1887; Mather 1887). From past experience it was recognized that the resource was highly variable in abundance, as it is today. Except for the period prior to the beginning of the 20th century, trends in soft clam landings in New Jersey have been generally similar to those in New York except for 1947 and 1948, when landings rose sharply in New Jersey (Fig. 30). From a level below 100 metric tons of meats per year in the ear- ly part of the century landings rose in the 1930s and remained relatively high until the late 1940s, then dropped abuptly and have fluctuated about a very low level ever since (Table 32). In the 1930s and 1940s land- ings in both states rose well above the levels of the 1920s, then fell off in the 1950s to even lower levels. New England has traditionally been the major producer of soft clam, but production there fell off after 1940 and this stimulated production in states farther south. However, neither in New Jersey nor New York have land- ings reached levels comparable to Maryland, where the fishery began in the 1950s, probably because Maryland has a much greater area of bottom suitable for this species, and also because Maryland allows more ef- ficient harvesting methods. In face of the reduced supply in New England and continued demand for soft clam it is likely that continued attrition will hold the resouce in the New York Bight area at a relatively low level of abun- dance. Although there is no positive evidence one way or the other, it is possible that the resource has been over- "V 'V \i 1880 90 1900 Figure 30.— Annual commercial landings of soft clam in New Jersey 1880-1975. 32 Table 32. — Estimated commercial landings of the north and middle Atlantic regions of the coast 1960-1975. Weights of meats in metric North Atlant ic reqion Middle Atlantic reqion Year Me-NY incl. NY only NJ-NC inc 1 . NJ only 1960 1,345( 5,244) 69(269) 2 547( 9,941) 20( 78) 1961 1,201( 4,684) 65(253) 2 139( 8,350) 10( 39) 1962 1.183( 4,614) 42(164) 3 078(12,016) 8( 31) 1963 1,307( 5,097) 45(175) 3 118(12,172) 7( 27) 1964 1,290( 5,031) 82(320) 3 713(14,492) 10( 39) 1965 1,541( 6,009) 93(363) 3 587(14,001) 15( 58) 1966 2,012( 7,848) 128(499) 3 394(13,248) 35(136) 1967 2,028( 7,910) 120(468) 2 427( 9,473) 49(191) 1968 2,130( 8,308) 92(359) 2 574(10,046) 41(160) 1969 2.495( 9,729) 87(339) 3 620(14,130) 32(125) 1970 2,997(11,690) 33(129) 2 853(11,138) 30(117) 1971 3,001(11,706) 70(273) 2 737(10,682) 21( 82) 1972 2,844( 11,093) 43(168) 912( 3,561) 28(109) 1973 3,350( 13,065) 47(183) 295( 1,150) 8( 31) 1974 2,751(10,729) 46(179) 846( 3,299) 39(152) 1975 3,006(11,722) 28(111) 556( 2,169) 77(299) The n 1970 ational saltwater angling sui did not include recreational veys for 1960, 196 catches of invertet , and Live ICNAF weights ar statistic e given in parentheses for comparabil ty with harvested in the New York Bight area. Soft clam is known to be much more susceptible to the effects of water pollution than hard clam is, thus pollution also could be a cause. Even if the resource recovers in New England it may be difficult to compete against the less costly Maryland industry which permits harvesting with hydraulic dredges (Merrill and Tubiash 1970). Chub Mackerel Like several other active pelagic fishes of the high seas, chub mackerel. Scomber japonicus Houttuyn, appears infrequently and erratically in domestic commercial land- ings. Most of the catch is taken in pound nets, and land- ings in New Jersey have been somewhat greater than in New York. The period of greatest landings in both states (up to 600 metric tons in New Jersey) was in the early 1940s which appears to lend some credence to the relative accuracy of statistics for the two states. The actual catch probably is much larger than the recorded catch, because this species often is taken with Atlantic mackerel and reported as such. In saltwater sport fishing surveys chub mackerel is not listed separately, but is included with Atlantic mackerel. It is assumed that the recreational catch of chub mackerel is not large. The species is not listed in ICNAF catches. Frigate Mackerel Frigate mackerel, Auxis spp.,' 3 has never been a major commercial species in the New York Bight area. It is dis- 'Probably Auxis thazard (Lacepede) and A. rochei (Risso). cussed here because, according to official statistics, it was recorded in commercial fishery landings only for a short period and because the record of landings is remarkably similar for New Jersey and New York. Max- imum reported catches were about 75 metric tons in each state. Almost all the catch was taken in pound nets. Frigate mackerel was first recorded in New Jersey land- ings in 1932 and in New York in 1931. The latest catches recorded were for 1951 in New Jersey and 1949 in New York. Catches in each state show three peaks, in the mid- 19308, early 1940s, and late 1940s. The species may have been included with unclassified food fishes prior to the 1930s. Two possible explanations of the relatively brief ap- pearance of frigate mackerel in New York Bight landings are suggested. Either the species was unusually abun- dant in the period from about 1932 to 1950, so that it spread beyond its usual geographic range, or oceanographic conditions during that period were such that this pelagic oceanic species came closer to shore than usual. Frigate mackerel also were recorded briefly in pound-net landings in Massachusetts and Rhode Is- land at about the same time. Arnold (1951) reported large numbers in the vicinity of Point Judith, R.I. in 1949, as well as other warm water species. Frigate mackerel has not been listed in saltwater sport fish catches. The species is included in the ICNAF category "Other fish," but landings have not been reported separately. It is assumed that the foreign catch is negligible. The species was not listed by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) or by Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928), which suggests that it is an infrequent visitor. Scup Scup, Stenotomus chrysops (Linnaeus), was not men- tioned by Earll (1887) as an important species in the fisheries of New Jersey in the 1880s. However, it was listed by Mather (1887) as important at the two ends and along the south shore of Long Island. Mather noted that scup had decreased in abundance, but by 1880 was in- creasing again. Earll did mention sheepshead, Archosar- gus probatocephalus (Walbaum), a closely related species, as being caught off the coast of New Jersey. This species, once abundant enough off New York to have a bay named after it, now is scarce north of Cape Hat- teras. As in New York (McHugh 1972a), scup was the leading species by weight in New Jersey food fish landings for a considerable period. It ranked first by weight from 1948 to 1965 inclusive except for 2 yr: 1949, when an unusually large catch of Atlantic mackerel was made (Fig. 28) and mackerel ranked first; and 1956, when scup was less abundant for a period (Fig. 31). The reduction in abun- dance in the mid-1950s may not have been as great as the drop in commercial landings would make it appear. Fishermen may have turned in that period to the higher priced summer flounder, which at that time was tem- porarily abundant. Scup ranked first or second by weight of all food finfishes landed in New Jersev for 23 con- 33 1880 90 Figure 31. — Annual commercial landings of scup in New Jersey i 1975. secutive years, 1948 to 1970 inclusive. In New York scup was first by weight for 19 yr, from 1948 to 1966 inclusive. The recreational catch is substantial, especially along the coasts of New Jersey and Long Island, but the com- mercial catch is larger (Table 33). In the last few years, including 1974, sport fishermen have been reporting scup as abundant in coastal waters, especially off New York. Reported commercial landings seem to support this view. There is evidence that the fish off New York and north- ward belong to a separate stock from those that come seasonally to the New Jersey coast (Neville and Talbot [1964]; Paul Hamer pers. commun.). Wide fluctuations in abundance have been typical of the scup resource since the early days of the fishery (Neville and Talbot [1964]). Although no detailed study of the evidence is available for the period since 1933, it is assumed that the sharp drop in New Jersey landings Table 33. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of s in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast for the period in which recreational or foreign catch estimates are available. Weights in metric tons. Year NY NJ ici? Me-NY NJ-NC incl. incl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 5.883 6,201 9,906 12 392 6,088 1,443 1961 5,468 6,209 9,635 11 468 1962 4,852 6,749 8,973 12 991 1963 4,222 5,774 8,746 10 224 3,191 ,231 1964 3,785 3,879 8,269 9 159 - 459 1965 3,419 4,126 8,620 7 611 4,604 1,925 1,371 718 1966 1,849 1,967 6,154 6 681 257 566 1967 1,492 1,823 4,810 4 148 347 549 1968 1,271 1,552 3,954 2 757 538 1,224 469 1969 742 1,642 1,872 3 074 177 30 278 1970 552 1,414 2,114 2 454 1,041 965 132 51 108 1971 599 917 2,145 1 890 148 74 773 1972 598 1,655 1,923 2 261 551 205 891 1973 1,317 1,347 3,160 1 734 507 200 1 ,076 1974 1,648 2,740 3,901 2 986 138 51 769 1975 1,738 2,843 (1,760) (3 174) 62 292 318 The national not give dat New England saltwater ang a by individua states and New ing surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 states. New York was included with Jersey with the other middle Atlantic the state Foreign catches for 1975 are included with the second tier ^ta 3 lonal. This species is for 1976. equal the average of recent Liable landings from 1953 to 1956 and the subsequent rise to a maximum in 1962 was caused by a real decline in abundance, al- though it is possible that variations in oceanographic conditions could have reduced the availability of the resource to fishermen. The appendix figure in Neville and Talbot shows a similar drop in the Chesapeake region. A similar, but much less pronounced, drop shows in the record of commercial scup landings in New York. Foreign catches of scup are relatively small, but the stocks of scup in this region have recently been so small that even incidental foreign catches may place sig- nificant stresses on the resource. The species migrates close inshore in spring and remains in coastal waters and bays until fall, then moves southward along the coast and spends the winter in relatively deep water at the edge of the continental shelf (Neville and Talbot [1964]). Bilateral agreements with the USSR and other nations which prohibit fishing at the edge of the shelf in winter and early spring were designed to protect the remaining scup resource as well as other species. Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) expressed the view that, since scup is particularly vulnerable to foreign trawling at the edge of the shelf in winter and spring, the existing area closed to fishing in winter and early spring should be main- tained or even expanded. Black Sea Bass The historic pattern of landings of black sea bass, Centropristis striata (Linnaeus), in New Jersey (Fig. 32) is remarkably similar to New York landings (McHugh 1972a). Catches were relatively low until the mid-1940s, reached a peak early in the 1950s, and dropped sharply and fairly steadily thereafter. On the average, New Jer- sey landings have been three to four times as great as New York landings. Most of the domestic commercial catch is made in pots (inshore) and otter trawls (off- shore). A brief review of the fishery along the Atlantic coast of the United States was published by Frame and Pearce (1973). They concluded that the decline in the 1960s was primarily a drop in trawl catches. They drew no conclusions about the reasons for the decline. It is sur- prising that neither Earll (1887) nor Mather (1887) men- tioned black sea bass as an important species in the 1880s in the New York Bight area. A v-AN 20 30 50 60 70 Figure 32.— Annual commercial landings of black sea bass in New Jersey 1887-1975. 34 Black sea bass is an important sport fish in the New York Bight area (Table 34). The estimated recreational catch usually has exceeded the domestic commercial catch. Total recreational catches in the north and mid- dle Atlantic regions have declined since 1960, despite an increase in numbers of sport fishermen. Black sea bass has not been recorded in foreign catches in the area except for about 1,500 metric tons in 1964 in ICNAF division 5Z. This may have been an error in recording. It is possible that incidental catches are made, especially in winter when the species has moved to deeper water. Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) believed that the resource is vulnerable to foreign trawlers, especially when the water is unusually warm in winter. n the north and middle Atla 3t for the period in which are available, weights in catches of black of the United or foreign catch Recreational Me-NY NJ-NC 238 1,001 379 2 142 679 262 2 238 1,189 340 3 973 233 3 957 3,215 279 3,043 136 1,480 533 (200) (1,950) national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 give data by individual states. New York was included with England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic one record of a fairly large foreign catch is questionable, idental catches of black sea bass are suspected, but no other ch has been specifically reported. Flounders The major species of flounder in New Jersey landings has been summer flounder, Paralichthys dentatus (Lin- naeus). Winter flounder, Pseudopleuronectes america- nus (Walbaum), more abundant to the northward, and much more important in the New York fishery, has never contributed much to New Jersey landings (Fig. 33). Yel- lowtail flounder, Limanda ferruginea Storer), was of no great importance in New Jersey until the 1970s, when scarcity of other species and better prices encouraged south New Jersey trawlers to fish heavily for yellowtail (LoVerde 1971, 1972). Flounders were among the most important finfishes taken in coastal bays in the 1880s (Mather 1887) but were 3 h h 2 SUMMER FLOUNDER J\fj \j 1 V V £0.5 WINTER FLOUNDER t° 5 YELLOWTAIL FLOUNDER . A 1 4 i 3 Jk FLOUNDERS - ALL SPECIES COMBINED 1\ 2 J^~ J- J, f J V Figure 33. — Annual commercial landings of flounders in New Jersey 1887-1975. considered to be much less abundant than formerly. The species were not listed separately until the 1930s. Floun- ders apparently were not highly regarded as food fishes in the early days (Mather 1887). Summer flounder.— As in New York, flounder land- ings in New Jersey were not listed separately until 1937. However, since landings of other species in New Jersey probably were negligible before that date, historic land- ings of all species combined (Fig. 33) probably were predominantly summer flounder landings. The history of the fishery is similar to that in New York, with peak catches in the 1950s and a sharp decline thereafter. Peak landings were higher in New Jersey than in New York, but the recent decline in New Jersey has been much sharper. A moderate increase has taken place since 1969 (Fig. 33). Most of the catch is made in otter trawls. Estimated sport catches of summer flounder have been about equivalent to the domestic commercial catch in the mid-Atlantic region, but 5-10 times the domestic commercial catch in the north Atlantic region (Table 35). Recreational catches dropped 25-30°? from 1965 to 1970. Catches of summer flounder reported by foreign fleets have been small. The species does, however, migrate off- shore to deeper waters in winter where it concentrates at the edge of the continental shelf from Hudson Canyon to Cape Hatteras (Grosslein et al. 1973, see footnote 7). It could be vulnerable to offshore trawling at that time. Winter flounder. — Winter flounder is a minor com- mercial species south of New York. It usually inhabits relatively shallow waters near shore, and the ban on 35 flounder oast le north and middle fttl for the period in which available. Weights in intic regions of metric tons. the United foreign catch commercial catch catch ICNAF Foreiqn catch Year NY NJ Me-NY NJ-NC incl. Me-NY NJ-NC incl. incl. 5Z W 5Z e 6 1960 1 ,139 2 882 4,397 5,167 18,285 5,616 1961 1 ,054 2 736 3,932 4,870 1962 721 2 154 2,806 4,208 1963 592 2 016 1,910 4,266 - 1964 841 1 665 1,838 3,713 - 1965 1 ,112 1 642 1,582 5,025 8,676 4,756 22 1966 1 ,119 1 737 1,486 4,914 31 1967 891 1 377 1,436 4,429 72 1968 552 970 815 3,291 31 4 - 1969 260 578 428 2,610 245 19 30 1970 409 891 555 3,465 5,266 3,512 21 4 11 1971 495 839 675 3,571 497 346 61 1972 500 840 659 3,920 127 266 1973 828 1,403 1,168 6,432 19 3 - 1974 1 ,128 1,587 3,032 8,679 . - 1975 1 ,466 1,957 (3,185) (9,136) " - national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, a e data for individual states. New York was included land states and New Jersey with the other middle Atla The 1960 ational catch was all flounders combined. 5 for 1975 are provisional. The total ICNAF for all flounders except yellowta il in suba. eas 3s for 1975 in Conn., and De parentheses assume .. equal the average that unava lab yea lgs in N.C. in elude other flounder spec LBS. nreported cat oh is possible. trawling within 2 miles of the New Jersey coast may have helped to keep the catch down. The reported recreational catch of winter flounder is much larger than the commercial catch in the mid-At- lantic region (Table 36), and about equal to the domes- tic commercial catch in the north Atlantic region. Win- ter and summer flounders are among the most impor- tant and sought-after recreational species in the shallow coastal waters of New York and New Jersey. Foreign catches of winter flounder, except in 1969, have been relatively small (Table 36). Yellowtail flounder. — The yellowtail flounder fishery of the north and middle Atlantic regions went through a wide fluctuation in landings, from a peak in the early 1940s to a low in the 1950s, and a subsequent rise to inter- mediate levels in the 1960s and early 1970s. These fluc- tuations are similar to variations in New York landings (McHugh 1972a). The relation between these fluc- tuations in catch and abundance of yellowtail flounder on the continental shelf was confirmed by Colton (1972). The species was particularly abundant off New York and New Jersey in the late 1960s, but Colton concluded that this was related to greater abundance and not to a shift in geographic range. Prior to the middle 1930s, yellow- tail was regarded as a scrap fish (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1945), and landings were small and prices low. The fishery began when winter flounder catches off New York and farther north declined. According to Lux (1963) there are three stocks of yel- lowtail, the most southerly of which occupies the southern New England region. The catch in this region, which for ICNAF regulatory purposes includes the waters over the continental shelf west and south of long. 69°W, has been controlled by quota since 1971. The total allowable catch in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 for 1976 has been set at 20,000 metric tons. Royce et al. (1959) concluded that the sharp decline in landings of yellowtail from the southern New England stock from the early 1940s to the middle 1950s was not caused by overfishing, but by a shift in the location of the stock. Landings in New York dropped to very low levels (McHugh 1972a, fig. 22) then recovered in the 1960s. A similar cycle occurred in New Jersey, but landings there were much smaller, and the decline is not clearly evident in Figure 33. The difference in landings between the two states is not so much a reflection of differences in the size of the trawler fleets as an indication that Long Island is about the southern limit of the range of this species. Usually, the numbers of vessels in the New Jersey trawl fleet have not been much different from those in the New York fleet. The magnitude of landings in the two states and the remarkable decline and subsequent rise in catches are illustrated in Table 37. The recent high levels of landings in New Jersey may indicate another south- ward shift, although it is possible that a distinct stock in- habits waters off southern New Jersey. Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) suggested that a fourth stock might exist in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Landings of yellow- tail flounder dropped abruptly in 1974 and 1975 in both ational catches of winter regions of the United national or foreign catch 1960 744 48 9 016 56 18,285 5,616 1961 769 69 8 714 80 1962 737 57 9 086 69 26 1963 836 84 9 050 106 139 1964 653 162 10 233 215 146 1965 1 ,018 127 11 394 227 9,905 3,145 511 1966 1 ,480 199 14 332 363 320 1967 1 ,333 166 11 680 618 438 1968 830 192 8 929 601 783 431 1969 734 122 10 940 329 6 ,452 350 166 1970 784 53 11 149 136 11,197 5,843 422 104 8 1971 782 29 11 520 59 917 1,094 114 1972 654 43 9 013 55 818 1,707 14 1973 529 72 8 716 75 793 707 33 1974 253 64 7 185 66 89 94 32 1975 266 48 (7 800) (48) 1 528 48 not give data by indiv New England states and angling surveys for 1960, Ldual states. New York was New Jersey with the other 1965, and 197C included with middle Atlanti The 1960 recr ation al catch was all flounders combined. Foreign c quota for 20,000 me atches for 1975 are provisional. The to all flounders except yellowtail in suba tal ICNAF 1976 reas 5 and 6 was N.H., Con or 1975 in pa -entheses assume that unava squal the average of recent ilable landing s ir 36 Table 37.— Estimated commercial landings of yellowtail flounder in New Jersey and New York 1937-1975. Annual average for approximately five-year periods in metric Years 1937-42 1943-47 1948-52 1953-57 1958-62 1963-67 1968-73 ^1974-75 2,555 1,987 1,892 2,606 1,909 2,969 1/ Two years only. states, suggesting that the effects of foreign fishing are now being felt in the New York Bight region. Yellowtail flounder is a species of relatively deep water, although most of the catch is made in water shal- lower than 100 m. For this reason the species does not support an important recreational fishery. Some hardy sport fishermen do seek the species, however, and a small winter recreational fishery has developed off Long Is- land (Ahem 1974). Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) concluded that the equilibrium maximum sustainable yield for the southern New England stock of yellowtail flounder is about 15,800 metric tons and that present quotas will allow the stock to return to equilibrium. The large foreign catch in 1969 (Table 38) came almost entirely from Nantucket Shoals, but this heavy exploitation was not associated with a decline in domestic catches in New Table 38. — Estimated comm in the north and middle A coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons 1960 526 5 14,151 5 1961 928 78 17,793 78 1962 1,765 16 27,468 16 27 1963 2,118 6 37,503 6 262 1964 1,616 5 37,576 6 300 1965 1,666 10 36,396 10 1,395 1966 1,582 44 30,340 44 294 1967 2,479 18 26,241 18 2,456 1968 2,547 44 31,708 44 1 ,261 2,188 1969 2,131 177 31,527 177 17 ,722 1,836 683 1970 2,126 495 32,670 495 2 ,592 468 118 1971 3,285 588 27,944 588 339 831 829 1972 3,261 394 32,261 405 1 ,269 4,150 117 1973 2,283 478 29.261 478 181 260 197 1974 784 121 24,806 121 62 190 16 1975 594 41 (19,470) ( 41) 83 3 The ri did n ational saltwater angling ot include recreational c surveys for itches of yel 1960, 1965, and 1970 il flounder. Foreign catche 1976 quota for was 20,000 met s for 1975 are provisior yellowtail flounder in al. The total ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 combined in N es for 1975 in H . , Conn . , and SeI en equa! S tte S av rage of re ailablo landings cent years. York Bight until 1974. What relation the resource being harvested by southern New Jersey fishermen bears to the New England stock is not known. Past experience and what is known about the life history of the species would suggest that the allowable catch will be variable and that this will not become a major New Jersey fishery. Little Tunny Euthynnus alletteratus (Rafinesque), little tuna or tunny, was important in the commercial fisheries of New Jersey for only about 8 yr, from 1945 to 1952 inclusive. Maximum landings reported were about 328 metric tons (722,000 pounds) in 1952 (Fig. 34). A minor peak in com- mercial landings was reported in 1921. Landings reported in New York have been smaller, but two peaks also ap- pear in the statistical record, from 1921 to 1930 with a maximum of 27 metric tons (60,000 pounds) in 1930, and from 1946 to 1949 with a maximum of 45 metric tons (99,000 pounds) in 1949. Most of the commercial catch in both states is taken in pound nets, which were a much more important gear in the 1920s than in the late 40s and early 50s, although there was a brief postwar increase in numbers of pound nets licensed (Knapp in press). Little tunny is primarily a fish of ocean waters, probably highly erratic in its migrations to shallow waters. The two peaks in landings, coming at approximately the same time in both states, with about a decade of zero catches inter- vening, suggest that the species either was especially abundant at these times, or that oceanographic con- ditions were favorable for inshore migrations. Tunas are grouped in the national saltwater angling survey reports. Thus, it is not possible to compare sport and commer- cial catches of little tunny. No foreign catches of this species have been reported. It is possible that little tunny is taken by foreign long- liners, but it may be too small to be caught with longline hooks. >■ - ■ ^A A. KA 90 1900 Figure 34.— Annual commercial landings of little tunny in New York and New Jersey 1889-1975. Surf Clam Surf clam, Spisula solidissima (Dillwyn), has been landed in small quantities in New Jersey and New York since 1900, but this was a minor fishery until the middle ■M 1940s in New York and until the middle 1950s in New Jersey. The modern fishery began off the south coast of Long Island, N.Y. Stocks of surf clam on the original grounds soon were reduced in abundance, and the fleets began to range more widely in search of new grounds. A large area closed to shellfishing in the apex of New York Bight removed some surf clam stocks from the fishery. A much larger resource was discovered off the New Jersey coast, and from 1949 to 1966 landings in New Jersey in- creased more than hundredfold, from 185 metric tons of meats to nearly 20,000 (Fig. 35). In weight of meats land- ed, this has been the most important food fishery in New Jersey since 1955. Following the peak year 1966 surf clam landings in New Jersey have decreased irregularly but sharply. Land- ings in 1972 and 1973 were about half the maximum and landings in 1974 only slightly higher, but in 1975 jumped substantially. The evolution of the fishery has been typical of coastal fisheries everywhere. The fleets have ranged south, first off Delaware, then to Maryland and Virginia (Ropes et al. 1972), and have contemplated extending their operations north to the Canadian coast, where plentiful surf clam resources have been reported (Lo Verde 1969). Production was increased by improving the efficiency of operations at sea and by steady ad- ditions of vessels to the fleet. The short-lived rise in land- ings in 1969 and 1970 was attributed to production from a new ground on the Delaware side of Delaware Bay (Lo Verde 1970). New Jersey and New York, which received 99.8% of the Atlantic coast catch in 1966 (Table 39), now receive less than 50%, and surf clam grounds off the two states produce only a small part of the total catch. It appears probable that as new beds are located and exhausted the total catch may begin to fall. Thus, the surf clam resource, like many other coastal fishery resources, eventually could decline to minor impor- tance. How long it would take to reach this stage in the evolution of the fishery will depend upon the magnitude of the total resource, demand for the product, and costs of harvesting and processing. The recently established State-Federal Cooperative Surf Clam Study, if success- ful, may prevent a repetition of the sorry history of so many other domestic coastal fisheries. Surf clam is known to occur off the coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape Hatteras. To the north it is found mostly in shallow waters near shore, although it is distributed only sparsely over Georges Bank (Merrill and Ropes 1969). The depth of greatest abundance increases toward the south. Most surf clam are found at depths between 12 and 43 m, but they have been reported as deep as 128 m. From New York northward a possible al- ternative resource is the smaller Spisula polynyma (Stimpson). South of Cape Hatteras is an even smaller species, Spisula raueneli (Conrad), according to Jacob- son and Old (1966). Occupying about the same geographic range, but in deeper water, is another possible alternate, ocean quahog or mahogany clam, Arctica islandica (Linnaeus). A limited fishery for ocean quahog has operated for a num- ber of years off Rhode Island and since 1968 landings Figure 35.— Annual commercial landings of surf clam in New Jersey 1901-1975. Table 39. --Estimated commercial landings of surf and middle Atlantic regions of the United States Weights of meats in metric t North Atlantic region 501(10 792(12 Middle Atlanti NJ-NC incl 11. 12,142( 86 13,610( 96 17,061(121 16,744(118 19,315(137 19,613(139 19,384(137 17,022(120 20,925(148 28,565(202 27,309(193 27,487(195 35,830(254 41,785(296 38,280(271 ,407 10 636 ( 75 512) ,210 12 109( 85 976) ,631 13 531( 96 070) ,133 17 032(120 927) ,884 16 726(118 756) ,136 19 190(136 250) ,250 19 584(139 044) ,626 18 862(133 923) ,856 14 597(103 640) ,564 16 348(116 068) 810 17 994(127 758) ,893 13 028 ( 92 495) ,156 9 676( 68 702) ,396 9 792 ( 69 526) ,673 10 277( 72 967) ,788 16 125(114 490) and 1970 did parentheses for comparability with have been rising. Landings of this species were first reported in Massachusetts in 1968 and in Connecticut in 1969. Ocean quahog is abundant from Georges Bank to the outer continental shelf off Chespeake Bay (Merrill and Ropes 1969). Surf clam is preferred because it is larger and produces a greater yield of meats, and is dis- tributed in somewhat shallower water closer to shore. There also have been problems with dark color and off- flavor of meats of ocean quahog. No foreign fleet has been known to harvest surf clam, which was declared by the United States a creature of the continental shelf under the terms of the 1958 Geneva Convention and now is further protected by the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 (U.S. House of Representatives 1976). Bluefin Tuna Tuna purse seiners began fishing in New Jersey waters in 1963 (LoVerde 1964). Catches of Atlantic bluefin tuna, 38 Thunnus thy anus thynnus (Linnaeus), were very erratic (Fig. 36). Fishing effort has been increasing thoughout the North Atlantic Ocean, and it is generally conceded that the resource has been seriously overfished (Stroud 1974; Mather 1974). It has even been proposed that At- lantic bluefin tuna be placed on the endangered species list. It is prohibited to take fish less than 14 pounds (6.4 kg) or in excess of 115 pounds (52.2 kg) but less than 300 pounds (136.1 kg) except as incidental catches, also specified as to amount. The following annual catch quotas also have been set: bluefin tuna taken by purse seine, 1,000 short tons (907 metric tons) of fish between 14 and 115 pounds, and 180 short tons (163 metric tons) of fish over 300 pounds; taken by methods other than purse seining, 2,000 fish over 300 pounds; anglers, daily bag limit 4 fish between 14 and 115 pounds, on fish over 300 pounds a bag limit of one fish per day per vessel through August 13, and a limit of seven fish per vessel thereafter until the quota of 2,000 fish is reached. Small quantities of bluefin tuna have been landed in New Jersey and New York for many years. Most of these were caught in pound nets or by hook and line. This tuna is a popular sport fish, although it has not been listed separately in the national saltwater angling surveys. In 1970 about 1,685 metric tons of tunas were estimated to have been taken by sport fishermen in the north Atlan- tic region, and about 400 metric tons in the middle At- lantic region (Deuel 1973). In 1970 the foreign catch of bluefin tuna in ICNAF sub- areas 5 and 6, the sport catch, and the domestic com- mercial catch were of the same orders of magnitude (Table 40). Atlantic Sea Scallop Figure 36. — Annual commercial landings of bluefin tuna in New York and New Jersey 1901-1975. Table 40. --Estimated commercial and recreational catches of bluefin tuna in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the States coast for the period in which recreational or foreign estimates are available. Weights in metric tons. Domestic commercial catch Recreational ICNAF Year NY NJ Me-NY incl. NJ-NC incl. Me-NY NJ-NC incl. incl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 4 2 634 2 254 8,249 1961 5 1 1,073 1 1962 8 2 3,207 2 1963 10 1,283 2,999 1,542 331 1964 9 1.251 998 1,923 230 1965 1 571 1,147 973 456 22 48 1966 1 237 883 243 1967 1 1,323 1,060 1,459 1968 13 65 742 65 1969 5 2 1,224 2 1970 13 1,398 1,474 1,398 1,684 402 1,160 1971 3 917 1,409 917 374 53 486 1972 2 976 698 976 12 166 1973 3 567 771 567 2 102 1974 5 396 632 396 4 144 1975 4 1,141 (830) 1,141) 295 give data by England stat saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not individual states. New York was included with the New es and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic states. Recre which probably inc >s were g Tspec' Jer the general category "tunas," les in addition to bluefin. Foreign catc -les for 1975 are provi ional. Figur N.H., as for 1975 in parenthe ses assume that unavailable landings in the average of recent years. " An unrepor ted ca ch is pos The U.S. Atlantic northern sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus (Gmelin), fishery began off New England in the 19th century and shifted to beds off Long Island, N.Y. in the 1920s. The fishery did not reach full develop- ment until after the second world war, when major stocks on Georges Bank were heavily exploited (Merrill and Tubiash 1970). The New England fishery reached its peak in 1961 with total landings of nearly 11,000 metric tons of meats, mostly in Massachusetts and Maine. Relatively large catches in 1961 and 1962 were mostly of survivors of an unusually large recruitment on Georges Bank in 1959 (Graham 1968). Scallop landings in New Jersey and New York have 90 1900 O 30 40 50 60 70 Figure 37. — Annual commercial landings of scallops in New Jersey 1897-1975. been relatively small and variable, and do not neces- sarily reflect catches by vessels based in those states. For example, in 1962 most scallop draggers from New Jersey landed their catch in New York (Lo Verde 1963). The sharp increase in New Jersey in 1965 (Fig. 37, Table 41) came mostly from catches off Cape Henry, Va. (Lo Verde 1966). New Jersey draggers returned to waters off Vir- ginia in 1966 but abundance had dropped substantially. As in the surf clam fishery, when abundance declined on traditional grounds the fleets ranged farther from their home ports in search of new grounds. It probably was in- evitable that sea scallop landings in New Jersey would decline (Fig. 37) soon after the New England scallop catch dropped from a combination of heavy fishing and poor spawning success. Canada is the only other country which harvests scallops off the United States coast. The Canadian fishery on Georges Bank began with the advent of the strong 1959 year class. Canadian interests built a new fleet to work on Georges Bank. When scallop stocks declined there they extended their area of operations to the southward where they were competing with scallopers from New York and New Jersey. Table 41. — Estimated commercial e north and middle Atlantic 1960-1975. Weights of mea catches of Atlantic sea scallop regions of the United states Domestic commercial catch ICNAF Foreiqn catch Year NY NJ Me-NY N incl. i J-NC ncl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 1,266 257 11,454 610 - 1961 1,370 158 12,154 302 4 565(37,889) 1962 1,233 44 11,087 87 5 715(47,434) 1963 873 79 8.944 100 5 898(48,957) 1964 92 7 64 7,520 152 5 922(49,156) 1965 1,323 860 6,918 2 ,144 4 434(36,803) 1966 965 182 6,022 1 ,225 4 878(40,489) 2,791(23,165) 1967 622 97 3,809 837 5 019(41,657) 6( 50) 1968 671 226 4,272 1 ,203 3(22 4,820(40,002) 424( 3,517) 1969 271 143 2,588 774 4,318(35,836) 2( 15) 1970 242 45 2,268 3 86 4,097(34,006) 1971 183 51 2,154 299 3,908(32,434) 1972 101 112 2.107 548 4,161(34,535) 16( 135) 1973 69 187 1,860 538 4,223(35,055) 1974 93 149 2,184 544 6,137(50,934) 1975 122 322 (3,334) (898) 7,414(61,536) zti: tional saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did elude recreational catches of invertebrates. Foreig n catches for 1975 are pro visional. For simplicity the ICNAF statist parentheses) have been reduced t 8.3, rather than showing live we ics, given in live weights (in d weights of meats by dividing by Lghts for domestic catches also. Domestic figures landings in N.H. for 1975 in parenthes , Conn., and Del. eque 1 the average of recent years. some stages of its life history is often assocated in- timately with eelgrass (Zostera). Most Zostera beds along the Atlantic coast were reduced or eliminated in 1931-32 by disease and the concurrent sharp decline of the bay scallop fishery has been attributed to destruc- tion of eelgrass beds. Marshall (1947), however, noted abundant scallop populations in the absence of eelgrass. Merrill and Tubiash (1970) reported that a major factor in decline of bay scallop landings after 1935 was the "ex- plosive expansion" of the sea scallop industry. The ef- fect shows very clearly in the record of bay scallop land- ings in New York State (McHugh 1972a, fig. 11). In New Jersey commercial landings of bay and sea scallops were lumped until 1937 (Fig. 37). Some bay scallop may have been included in the earlier records, but from 1937 to 1955 inclusive apparently no catches were made. Small and variable catches have been reported for most years from 1951 to 1973 inclusive (Table 42). The poten- tial for bay scallop production apparently is much less in New Jersey than in New York. In the recent period of abundance maximum reported landings were 171 metric tons in 1964 in New Jersey and 449 metric tons in 1962 in New York. Because it lives its entire life history in shallow waters, bay scallop is subject to rigorous environmental con- ditions and it is hardly surprising that it is extremely variable in abundance. But, because its life span is not much longer than 1 yr, management strategy is relatively simple. It is necessary only to protect the young until they have a chance to spawn, then permit unlimited har- vesting. This should achieve the maximum sustainable yield, but it will be a highly variable yield over which man cannot have much further control under natural en- Table 42. — Estimated commercial landings of Atlantic bay scallop in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. weights of meats in Atlantic Bay Scallop Argopecten irradians (Lamarck), bay scallop, has been esteemed as a delicacy along the Atlantic coast for a very long time. It lives in shallow protected waters and at North Atlant ic region Middle Atlantic reqion Year He-NY incl. NY only NJ-NC incl. NJ only 1960 864(7.171) 383(3,176) 31( 257) 1961 678(5,627) 359(2,977) 80 ( 663) 32( 266) 1962 1,095(9,088) 449(3,724) 242(2,007) 166(1,377) 1963 315(2,614) 138(1,144) 270(2,239) 124(1.028) 1964 523(4,341) 312(2,588) 325(2,695) 171(1,418) 1965 610(5,063) 402(3,334) 216(1,791) 44 ( 365) 1966 543(4,507) 144(1,194) 261(2,164) 79( 655) 1967 280(2,324) 74( 613) 206(1,708) 39( 324) 1968 314(2,606) 91 ( 754) 298(2,471) 8( 66) 1969 644(5,345) 113( 937) 278(2,305) 1970 665(5,519) 166(1,377) 59( 490) - 1971 1,001(8,308) 65( 539) 27( 224) - 1972 42( 349) 42 ( 349) 58 ( 481) - 1973 77( 639) 77( 638) 45 ( 373) 28 ( 232) 1974 308(2.556) 308(2,556) 107 ( 887) 7( 58) 1975 201(1,668) 201(1.668) 63( 525) -( -1 1970 ational saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and did not include recreational catches of invertebrates. ICNAF weights are given in parenthes es for comparab ility with - An unreported catch is possible. vironmental conditions provided that he preserves the quality of the coastal zone. American Lobster In the 1880s the southern limit of the North Atlantic lobster fishery, according to Earll (1887) was at Squan River (probably the Manasquan), just north of Barnegat Bay. A few lobster were caught in Long Island Sound, but lobster landings at the eastern end of Long Island ap- parently came from Marthas Vineyard (Mather 1887). At one time lobster was taken in New York harbor, but by 1880 the catch had dropped to zero. As in New York, the trend in American lobster, Homarus americanus Edwards, landings in New Jersey has been upward since the early 1950s (Fig. 38). At first, most of the increase was caused by conversion of fish trawlers to lobster trawling, as the existence of a sub- stantial resource on the continental shelf became com- monly known. From 1957 to 1961 about 90% of lobster landings in New Jersey were taken by trawlers operating between Hudson and Veatch canyons on the continental shelf (LoVerde 1963). By 1964 (LoVerde 1965) about 35 trawlers were taking lobster specifically. Landings dropped from 1962 to 1967 and many fishermen con- cluded, from the scarcity of lobster on these grounds and a substantial decline of lobster size, that the resource had been overharvested. From this evidence alone, that con- clusion was not necessarily warranted. The subsequent rise in catches to even higher levels (Fig. 38) came about through another change in harvesting strategy, this time a switch from sea bass to lobster by pot fishermen. It is possible, although by no means conclusive, that the decline in size of lobster might have been caused by an unusually successful year class or classes at this time. These changes in fishing strategy are typical of coastal fisheries, illustrated particularly well by the interac- tions between lobster fishing and other kinds of fishing. The sequence was, first of all, a shift from fish to lobster by trawlers, then a shift by trawlers back to finfishing, especially for summer flounder when lobster catches dropped (LoVerde 1967), and finally another set of shifts in the pot fisheries, from sea bass to lobster. Thus, trends in the catches of all these species are interrelated and not independent phenomena. These changes are related to prices and costs of operation, as well as to relative abun- dance of the various species. By 1971, about 40% of New Jersey lobster landings were taken in pots, and the sea bass pot fishery had declined almost to nothing (LoVerde 1972). It is reasonably well established that a part of the in- crease in lobster landings in the New York Bight area and farther south was caused by a real increase in abun- dance. It has been suggested that this increase was as- sociated with falling water temperatures, which caused the species to shift its geographic range. Table 43 illus- trates not only that New York landings have been fol- lowing an upward trend since the early 1960s, but also that they have been rising more rapidly than in the north Atlantic region as a whole. Similarly, New Jersey land- ings of American lobster have been rising, but landings to the south of New Jersey have been rising more rapidly. In the 5-yr period, 1961-65, landings in New York made up less than 2% of the entire north Atlantic region catch, in the period 1966-70 nearly 4%. In the same two periods New Jersey landings rose also, but in the first period this was about 97% of total landings in the middle Atlantic region, in the second period only 87%. In the last several years, however, landings in New Jersey and New York have been dropping. Local lobstermen believe not only that the resource is less abundant, but also that the fishery has been overcapitalized. Taylor et al. (1957) postulated a relationship between catches or availability of lobster along the Atlantic coast and water temperatures. In a period of rising air tem- peratures (presumably correlated with ocean tem- peratures) from about 1920 to 1950 they found that lob- Table 43. — Estimated commercial catches of American lobste north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coa 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. 1880 90 1900 50 60 70 Figure 38.— Annual commercial landings of American lobster in New Jersey 1880-1975. Domesti c commercial ca tch ICNAF Foreign catch Year NY NJ Me -NY incl. NJ-NC incl. 5Z w 5Z e 6 1960 230 622 13,502 637 1961 228 703 11.990 710 1962 143 395 12,974 407 1963 173 340 13,384 351 1964 248 482 13,547 496 1965 295 463 13,235 484 1966 331 347 13.036 365 1967 399 400 11.633 499 1968 530 550 14,153 615 1969 64 2 650 14,573 753 1970 747 832 14,542 949 1971 812 582 14,548 714 1 102 2S 1972 520 593 10,950 1,014 2 204 17 1973 405 618 10,134 733 2 228 5 1974 332 540 10,549 694 178 1975 304 386 (10,743) (454) 219 The n did n ational saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965. and 1970 ot include recreational catches of invertebrates. Publi lobst off I c Law 93- e illega' 24 2, enacted in January 1974, turc of the continental shelf for fishermen of other natio s. Foreign catches for 1975 declared American Thereafter, it is to catch lobster [Canadian) are provisional Figui in N es for 1975 in parentheses ass H.. Conn., and Del. equal the une that verage of recent years. ster landings in New England rose, while those in the middle Atlantic states dropped. They inferred a cause- and-effect relationship but did not explain the mecha- nisms. Dow (1969) also has maintained that lobster abundance and distribution along the coast, and hence catches, are a function of water temperature trends. Some lobster are taken by recreational fishermen but this catch has not been recorded in the national surveys. Lobster is taken incidentally by trawlers fishing primarily for other species. Catches reported by foreign fleets have been relatively small (Table 43), and there is no information at present that fisheries specifically for lobster have been established by other nations in the area, except for the Canadian lobster fishery on southeastern Georges Bank (Grosslein et al. 1973, see footnote 7). Nevertheless, a good deal of concern has arisen in some quarters about the possibility of unan- nounced lobster catches by some nations fishing in the area, and there have been some difficult gear conflicts. Effects of foreign fishing on the lobster fisheries of the New York Bight area probably have been negligible, at least until very recently. In 1974, by Congressional ac- tion, American lobster was declared a creature of the shelf. This action was not consistent with the definition contained in the 1958 Geneva Convention, because lob- ster can swim. Nevertheless, foreign fishing vessels with lobster aboard have been detained and the operators penalized in U.S. courts. Fines have been paid despite the questionable legality of the U.S. declaration. When the United States declared unilateral jurisdistion over resources out to 200 miles from the coast under the provisions of The Fishery Conservation and Manage- ment Act of 1976, this weakness in the regulations was removed. Edwards (1968) estimated that the standing crop of lobster in the region from the Gulf of Maine to Hudson Canyon beyond 12 miles was about 50 million pounds (23,000 metric tons). Swordfish Figure 39. — Annual commercial landings of swordfish in New York and New Jersey 1901-1975. become a longline fishery. The advantage was probably that longlines took other species as well. Swordfish has been included with billfishes in the national saltwater sport fish surveys but estimates are not available prior to 1970. In 1970 the total recorded catch of billfishes in this area was 326 metric tons in the middle Atlantic region (Table 44), none in the New England region. Thus, it appears that the recreational catch of swordfish is relatively small. Swordfish has not been reported separately in ICNAF landings. Some probably are taken by longline and per- haps other gears by foreign fishermen. Table 44. — Estimated commercial landings of swordfish in the nort and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Atlantic region Me-NY incl. NY only Middle Atlantic Fishing for swordfish, Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, off New Jersey was a relatively recent development. Com- mercial landings were insignificant until the 1960s (Fig. 39), when a longline fishery developed (LoVerde 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967). Landings were made by New Jersey longliners in other states and some vessels from other states in New Jersey ports, but apparently the success of fishing was variable. The decline of this short-lived fishery undoubtedly was hastened by national hysteria about residues of mercury in some large pelagic fishes like swordfish and tunas, and action by the Food and Drug Administration to prohibit transport of swordfish in interstate commerce. A commercial swordfish fishery has been underway in New York for much longer. Landings were first recorded in 1904. Except for 1908, landings have been reported for every year except 1972 (Fig. 39). This was at first a har- poon fishery, but beginning in 1963 a shift was made to longlines. By 1967 harpoons were no longer used, and ex- cept for small catches reported on handlines, this had 1962 412 19 12 12 1963 1,079 21 171 88 1964 738 78 646 139 1965 398 40 828 454 1966 426 38 190 115 1967 292 25 183 72 117 33 1969 153 1 17 14 1970 130 8 - 1 1971 35 2 * * 1973 275 1,352 , 3 34 2 3 1975 (1,856) (120) 55 Recreational catches were i "billfishes." The only rec 1970 in the middle Atlantic been recorded. nc luded under the gener atch was 3 26 met No foreign ca I] onTin in N.H. for , Coi 1975 in parentheses as n., and Del. equal the ume that u average of ^available landings 42 Striped Bass The history of striped bass, Morone saxatilis (Wal- baum), landings in New Jersey (Fig. 40) has been similar to landings in all the coastal states, where the trend has been irregularly upward since the early 1930s. Landings in New Jersey have been less than in New York and the fluctuations have been much greater. Whereas the com- mercial catch in New York has been primarily in haul seines, the New Jersey commercial fishery since 1960 has been almost exclusively an otter trawl fishery in coastal waters in winter. I am informed that the very wide fluctuations in New Jersey landings of striped bass may reflect success of law enforcement rather than abun- dance of fish, especially after the winter trawl fishery for this species became important. This fishery began when it was discovered that along the New Jersey coast striped bass often spend the winter in relatively shallow waters off the coast rather than in bays and estuaries. It is illegal in New Jersey to trawl within 2 miles of the coast, but facilities for enforcement of marine fishery laws in that State are inadequate, as they are in most Atlantic coastal states. Activity of enforcement agents may depend on how the authorities react to public pressures, especially from sport fishermen. According to national saltwater sport fishing surveys, the recreational catch of striped bass is relatively large (Table 45). In the 3 yr for which estimates are available, in the north Atlantic and middle Atlantic regions com- bined, the total sport catch was more than six times the total commercial catch. Sport catch estimates also sup- port the hypothesis that abundance of striped bass has increased over this period, for the sport catch has grown about twice as much as the number of sport fishermen. These figures, if they are reasonably accurate, con- tradict many of the assertions used in the chronic con- flict between recreational and commercial striped bass fishermen, and do not support the argument that com- mercial fishing for this species should be curtailed or prohibited. In other words, regulations, if they are to be successful, must be applied to all segments of the fishery. There is no scientific rationale for termination of com- mercial fishing (Retzsch 1975). Striped bass is not recorded in foreign catches, al- though it is remotely possible that small incidental catches could be made by trawls beyond 12 miles. This migratory coastal species, like weakfish and some others, is not threatened by foreign fishing and should be amenable to management by the coastal nation-state. In view of its vulnerability, as an anadromous species, to damage from domestic overfishing and other human agencies, and the patent failure generally of domestic ef- forts to manage coastal fisheries, it is remarkable that the striped bass resource has survived and flourished. It has been suggested (Mansueti 1961; McHugh 1972a) that this species has been able to take advantage of enrich- ment of its estuarine nursery grounds by man. If so, the effect must be reversible at some higher level of enrich- ment. On the other hand, if increased nutrient loads in the estuaries have been favorable for striped bass Figure 40. — Annual commercial landings of striped bass in New Jer- sey 1887-1975. Table 45 .--Estimated commercial and recreational catches of striped bass in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Atlant io reqion Middle NJ-NC Atla NJ only Ttic reqion Year Commerc Me -NY incl. ial NY only Recreational Me-NY incl. Recreational NJ-NC incl. 1960 428 332 5 597 3,451 52 11,254 1961 592 413 3,699 125 1962 607 298 3,298 224 1963 569 306 3,644 342 1964 738 452 3,387 452 1965 576 336 21 773 2,920 345 3,334 1966 858 477 3,258 143 1967 1,100 739 3,646 148 1968 1,151 675 3,886 208 1969 1,233 661 4,391 141 1970 1,261 586 20 795 3,790 118 12,366 1971 931 526 2,601 128 1972 587 371 3,505 169 1973 1,107 759 4,747 348 1974 841 626 3,662 324 1975 (685) 516 (2,724) 155 The national saltwater anqlinq surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not qive data by individual states. New York was included with the New Enqland states and New Jersey Atlantic states. ith the other middle production, then pollution abatement may lead to a reduction in abundance. A recent report from Maryland (Boone 1976) states that the last dominant year class of striped bass was produced in 1970 and that small fish are becoming scarce. This may mean reduced catches in the New York Bight area in the near future. Conch Two species of conch. Busycon carica (Gmelin), knobbed whelk, and B. canaliculatum (Linnaeus), chan- neled whelk, are used in the New York Bight area as bait for sport fishing and are canned in limited quantities for human food. The pattern of landings in New Jersey dif- fers from that in New York, where the peak came in the 1940s, probably as a result of protein shortages during 43 the war. In New Jersey (Fig. 41) the increase in landings came in the 1950s and a peak was reached in the early 1960s. According to LoVerde (1964, 1968) demand for conch meats increased at this time, but also scarcity of finfishes encouraged some fishermen to turn to this resource. Fluctuations in landings (Table 46, Fig. 41) probably were related more to market demand than to abundance of conch. In the New York Bight area conch are taken mostly in pots, and the catch is to some extent incidental to the sea bass pot fishery. The recent downward trend in conch landings may have been caused by the decline of the sea bass fishery. Figure 41.— Annual commercial landings of conch in New York and New Jersey 1926-1975. Le 46. --Estimated commercial landings of conch in th ;h and middle Atlantic regions of the United States 3t 1960-1975. Weights of meats in metric tons. North Atlantic region Middle At antic reqion Year Me-NY incl. NY only NJ-NC inc NJ only 1960 83(324) 12 ( 47) 224( 873 142(554) 1961 59(230) 6( 23) 187 ( 728 95(370) 1962 84(328) 8( 31) 262(1 ,021 75(292) 1963 93(363) 10 ( 39) 398(1 .551 238(927) 1964 85(331) 19( 74) 220( 857 87(339) 1965 80(312) 20( 78) 199 ( 775 84(328) 1966 126(491) 11 ( 43) 420(1 .637 169(659) 1967 113(441) 35(136) 249 ( 970 62(242) 1968 92(359) 22 ( 86) 269(1 ,048 68(265) 1969 170(662) 17 ( 66) 275(1 ,071 136(530) 1970 183(713) 18 ( 70) 251( 978 84(328) 1971 195(759) 15 ( 58) 73 ( 285 36(140) 1972 170(662) 19 ( 74) 167 ( 650 52(203) 1973 173(674) 20 78) 272(1 ,060 68(265) 1974 144 (562 ) 24 94) 596 (2 ,324 49(191) 1975 160(624) 49( 193) 609(2 ,375 73(286) for comparabili landings were reported. A peak of about 60 metric tons in 1948 probably was related to the scarcity of meat at the end of the war. According to LoVerde (1963) the labor of skinning the fish deterred local fishermen and puffer were landed only when other species were scarce. He also said that the increase in landings in the 1960s, to a peak of about 70 metric tons in 1963, was stimulated by development of out-of-state markets. These may have been markets created by the rapidly developing fishery in Chesapeake Bay, which reached its peak in 1965. The subsequent decline of the commercial fishery in New Jer- sey may have been caused by overproduction of puffer in Chesapeake Bay, which led to a decline in prices. This was the reason advanced for the parallel decline in puffer landings in New York (McHugh 1972a). But the decline to zero landings in the 1970s apparently reflects a real scarcity of fish in New Jersey (Paul Hamer pers. com- mun.). In New York, greatest landings were in the mid- dle and late 1940s, when landings rose to a maximum of over 1,000 metric tons. The secondary peak in the 1960s was general in the Middle Atlantic Bight, caused by a temporary increase in abundance (Table 47). Northern puffer presently is extremely scarce along the coast. Although puffer is not a popular sport fish, recreational fishermen catch large quantities at times of abundance (Table 47). In the middle Atlantic region the recreational catch probably comes mostly from Chesapeake Bay and the North Carolina sounds. Northern puffer is a coastal fish which never migrates far from shore. It has not been recorded in foreign catches and probably is never taken by foreign fleets. Table nor the United 47. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of rn puffer in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the States coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Atlantic reqion Middle Atla ntic region Year Commercial Recreatior Me-NY NY Me-NY incl. only incl. al Commercial NJ-NC NJ incl. only Recreational NJ-NC Northern Puffer I960 143 136 1 461 774 15 771 1961 223 223 693 34 1962 246 244 822 66 1963 430 430 1,252 73 1964 2 50 250 2,524 59 1965 183 183 5 870 5,897 24 4,924 1966 103 103 3,825 16 1967 32 32 3,687 2 1968 102 102 1,850 3 1969 118 118 2,176 1 1970 89 89 3 583 744 7,515 1971 55 55 284 - 1972 3 3 60 - 1973 2 2 8 - 1974 4 4 1 - 1975 (2) 2 (*) - wil; ational ot give the New saltwats data by England r angling sut individual st ates w Je for 1960 . New Yo , 1965, and 1970 rk was included the other middle Sphoeroides maculatus (Bloch and Schneider) has never been of great importance as a commercial fish in New Jersey. Prior to the second world war scarcely any and Del. equal Tilefish SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The interesting history of the tilefish, Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps Goode and Bean, fishery has been de- scribed in detail by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953), and was reviewed briefly by McHugh (1972a). The species apparently is distributed in a narrow band of relatively warm bottom water at the edge of the continental shelf. It is taken incidentally by trawlers fishing primarily for other species, but recently in New Jersey a specialized longline fishery has developed; this accounts for the sharp increase in landings (Fig. 42, Table 48) in the last 3 yr. No parallel increase occurred in New York landings, but north of New York landings have increased about as sharply as in New Jersey. In both states limited deep water handline sport fisheries have developed recently. The only foreign catch of tilefish reported by ICNAF was 1 metric ton in 1972. It is likely that incidental catches are made fairly regularly by foreign fleets fishing at the edge of the continental shelf. Figure 42.— Annual commercial landings of tilefish 1933-1975. New Jersey Table 48 .--Estimated commercial landings of tilefish in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United states coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. North Atlantic Middle Atlanti c region Year Me-NY incl. NY only NJ-NC incl. NJ only 1960 1,039 35 25 20 1961 338 46 50 37 1962 115 57 53 42 1963 101 13 20 14 1964 565 37 32 30 1965 604 20 10 9 1966 435 55 3 3 1967 37 8 13 8 1968 27 3 3 3 1969 20 5 10 10 1970 47 3 11 10 1971 46 25 16 15 1972 11 6 111 111 1973 71 3 323 323 1974 206 22 380 380 1975 (277) 2 (434) 434 for tilefish Study of trends in landings of some 48 species of fishes and shellfishes in New Jersey has shown that the history of the marine fisheries of the State closely parallels the history of the marine fisheries of New York. Maximum total weight of landings in New Jersey was reached in 1956, followed by a secondary peak in 1962, and a sub- sequent sharp decline to a low in 1969 at only about 16% of the 1956 high. Over most of the recorded history of New Jersey fisheries, menhaden has dominated the catch, especially after the 1930s. The recent rise in landings after 1969 has been caused primarily by a resurgence of the menhaden fishery. When food finfishes and food shellfishes are con- sidered separately the patterns are different. The greatest recorded weight of landings of food finfishes was in 1901, but the statistics prior to 1929 were for the most part widely spaced in time and probably were less reliable. The next greatest was 1945, the peak year of a period (1929-49) which marked the most prosperous era of the otter trawl fisheries of New Jersey. Subsequently, landings of food finfishes declined rather steadily to an all-time low in 1968 which was about 30% of the 1945 high. Landings of food shellfishes showed a downward trend from 1880 to 1944, then rose sharply to a maximum his- toric high in 1966, and fell off abruptly thereafter. The re- cent rise is somewhat misleading, for it was caused by development after the second world war of the surf clam fishery. If surf clam catches were not included in food shellfish landings, the downward trend continues, as it has in New York. The postwar decline in food finfish landings in New Jersey, which was similar to the decline in New York, is significant in the light of the popular belief that foreign fishing is the cause of all the problems of the domestic marine fisheries. Foreign fishing did not extend south- ward of Cape Cod and Georges Bank until the mid-1960s, when the decline of domestic landings was already well underway. This suggests that other factors had impor- tant effects on total landings. Foreign fishing certainly has reduced recently the abundance of a number of living resources important to domestic fishermen in New York Bight, and thus created problems for domestic fisher- men. But it is a dangerous oversimplification to believe that all the problems of the domestic fisheries will be solved by extending national jurisdiction to 200 miles. Resolution of foreign fishing problems off the U.S. coast will bring realization that even more difficult unsolved problems remain. Preoccupation with "the Russians" has led many people to forget that extremely complex domestic fishery problems of long standing exist, and that the United States has made little progress in solving them. As Gates and Norton (1974) have observed, foreign fishing is a symptom of what is wrong with the domestic fishing industry, not a cause. Smith (1975), with reference to a west coast trawl fishery, noted that the well-being of domestic fishermen did not change sig- nificantly as foreign fishing developed in their area, yet 45 domestic fishermen perceived foreign fishing as a major threat. In New Jersey about 25 species of fishes and shell- fishes produced landings of 1,000 metric tons or more at one time or another in recorded history. Of these 25 species 13 are estuarine and coastal resources not vul- nerable to foreign fishing. Landings of an additional eight species reached peaks between 1930 and 1958. Thus, the subsequent declines in landings of these eight species were not caused by foreign fishing. Another two species have never produced major landings in New Jer- sey because demand is low. The remaining two, bluefin tuna and unsorted industrial fishes, reached peak land- ings in 1970 and 1966 respectively, but the subsequent declines were caused by domestic overfishing in the one case and by domestic economic conditions in the other. In New York also, some 25 species of fishes and shell- fishes yielded landings of 1,000 metric tons or more in 1 yr or another since 1880. With six exceptions these were the same species on the New Jersey list. Of these 25 species 10 are estuarine and coastal, not subject to foreign fishing. Of the remaining 15, all of which have been taken by foreign fleets recently, two have been in low demand in the United States. In both states, landings of species not vulnerable to foreign fishing have declined more sharply since peak landings were reached than have domestic landings of species also taken by foreign fleets (Table 49). This demonstrates clearly that domestic fishery management has not been successful in maintaining landings in the two states bordering on New York Bight, and that al- though foreign fishing has taken large quantities of some species important in domestic catches, foreign fishing has not been the only factor, or even the major factor, responsible for the decline of domestic fisheries in New York Bight. This is further substantiated by the history of marine fisheries in Rhode Island (Olsen and Steven- son 1975); in that State total landings have been in- creasing since 1964, and the rise has been attributed to successful management. The history of commercial fishery landings in the New York Bight area is illustrated by comparing combined landings for New York and New Jersey of 27 major species in the catch (Fig. 43). The species have been ar- ranged from bottom to top approximately in chronological order of years of peak landings. The series illustrates rather well how the industry shifted from traditional inshore resources (oyster to weakfish) in the late 1920s and the 1930s to demersal resources (haddock to yellowtail flounder) as the offshore trawl fishery developed. Next came increased landings of a variety of species, stimulated by meat shortages and high fish prices during the later years of the second world war and immediately after (hard clam to Atlantic mackerel). The final period, continuing to today, was characterized by concentration on certain resources temporarily abun- dant (sea scallop, black sea bass, summer flounder, scup, American lobster, and striped bass), but also including the period of rapid growth and subsequent decline of the industrial fisheries (menhaden and unclassified species) and the surf clam fishery. As in New York (McHugh 1972a), these changes were in response to changing abun- dance or availability of traditional species and changing economic conditions. Despite the obvious capacity of the industry to respond fairly quickly to such changes it was not possible to maintain maximum historic levels of total landings (Fig. 3), even of food fishes and edible shell- fishes (figs. 5 and 2 respectively in McHugh 1972a). It is obvious that the declining fisheries of the New York Bight area have some predominantly domestic causes, not shared by some neighboring states to the north. In Rhode Island, for example, following a sharp decline in total landings from the late 1950s to 1964, the trend in total landings has been up. Most of the decline up to 1964 can be accounted for by a decline in indus- trial groundfish landings. Olsen and Stevenson (1975) described the commercial fishing industry in Rhode Is- land as thriving, and capable of expansion and diver- sification. Even in New England, the epitome of a depressed Table 49. --Historic trends in domestic landings of York Bight (NY and NJ combined) since 1929, compare fishermen with those vulnerable to foreign fishing major commercial fishery re ng resources not available Weights in metric tons. sources of New to foreign Maximum catch Minimum subsequent catch Average catch values New Jersey New York New Jersey New York New New Jersey York Food finfishes Food shellfishes Industrial specie Subtotals 8,745(1937) 21,468(1966) 220,639(1956) 232,105(1956) 18,644(1949) 362(1945) 881(1946) 713(1962) 391(1962) 222(1939) 552(1967) 347(1967) ,136(1972) 2,314(1959) ,918(1970) 291(1967) ,115(1966) 5,067(1967) ,441(1969) 5,188(1970) ,520 1,033 ,664 4,453 ,448 2,479 ,218 9,093 ,702 6,371 Percent decline from historic Percent de maximum to subsequent minimum maximum to folio New Jersey New York New Jersey New York foreign fleets 77.5 58.7 46 :l_ \. . . K. _A - . . v^-v -N'y \/ J . V jr---— ,- -Iv^Ss- 1 ^^ry^A^_ - ,^ _ STRIPED BASS AMERICAN LOBSTER UNCLASSIFIED INDUSTRIAI FISHES (NOTE SCALE CHANGE ) SCUP SUMMER FLOUNOER BLACK SEA BASS SEA SCALLOP A-. X\ :L_ -VV k— ^V\^^- ...' V ^VA-v - ,/Vk "•-y"' , , , v-v, — ^r - • JV ''\ V^W^, : ..r~\ - -. ~"^ ^ 1-y