Table 2. — Actual and estimated numbers of tagged thread herring recaptured, 1968-70, 

 from 1,582 releases near Beaufort, N.C., September 1968. 



Beach, as indicated by the estimated recapture 

 of three fish there. The Florida recaptures were 

 made prior to November 15, the last day thread 

 herring were caught. The tags were recovered 

 in December on a secondary magnet. 



In the spring of 1969 no thread herring were 

 landed. The single recovery in Southport was 

 most likely a holdover from the previous season. 

 There was no offshore spring fishery near Beau- 

 fort; thus no possibility of recoveries there. 



The recaptures in Chesapeake Bay, Va., came 

 from fish that could have been caught off the 

 northern coast of North Carolina and transport- 



FEINANOINA 

 (EACH 



AUTUMN 

 1968 



SPRING 

 1969 



AUTUMN 

 1969 



Figure 3. — Southerly movements of Atlantic thread 

 herring along South Atlantic coast ef the United States, 

 1968-70. 



ed to the Bay as some Chesapeake Bay vessels 

 fished off the North Carolina coast during that 

 period. The plant did not report any thread 

 herring landings, so the thread herring probably 

 were mixed with menhaden. 



In the autumn of 1969 tagged thread herring 

 were recaptured sequentially along the South 

 Atlantic coast from Beaufort to Fernandina 

 Beach, again indicating a southerly fall migra- 

 tion. An estimated 16 were recaptured in Sep- 

 tember at Beaufort, 20 in September and Oc- 

 tober at Southport, and 9 in December at Fer- 

 nandina Beach. The December recoveries at 

 Beaufort are the result of tags probably lodged 

 in the conveyor system because thread herring 

 were landed only in September. 



In 1970 thread herring were landed only dur- 

 ing the autumn. Four fish were estimated re- 

 captured at Southport in October. There was 

 no fishing at Fernandina Beach in late October 

 and November when thread herring are usually 

 caught in that area. 



Results from this experiment indicate that 

 thread herring migrate south in the autumn 

 along the South Atlantic coast (Figure 3). 

 Southerly migration rates were estimated from 

 elapsed time and distance between areas. In 

 1968, about 10 days after release, several tagged 

 fish were recaptured near Cape Fear, N.C, 75 

 miles south of the tagging site. An additional 

 recapture was made about 370 miles south off 



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