McHUGH: MARINE FISHERIES OF NEW YORK 



northward migration in spring and return in 

 fall, and as they grow older they move farther 

 north. Menhaden caught north of Chesapeake 

 Bay usually are large, mature fish, most of which 

 have had an opportunity to spawn at least once. 

 It is probable that if menhaden fisheries had not 

 developed south of Delaware Bay, the northern 

 fisheries could have continued forever. It is cer- 

 tain that the abrupt decline in New York waters 

 would have been slowed, if not prevented alto- 

 gether. The resource would, of course, continue 

 to fluctuate widely in abundance from natural 

 causes, but the danger of overfishing probably 

 would have been much less. The intense men- 

 haden fishery in Chesapeake Bay, which now 

 takes almost exclusively immature fish in their 

 first and second years of life, reduces the life 

 expectancy so greatly that few fish live long 

 enough to migrate farther north. Thus, the col- 

 lapse of the menhaden fishery in New York 

 waters, like the early collapse of the sardine fish- 

 ery in northern California and higher latitudes, 

 was caused not so much by local overfishing, but 

 by overfishing by other fleets in the waters of 

 other States to the southward. 



Menhaden landings in New York first began 

 to decline in 1958. In 1959 a sharp increase in 

 catches of menhaden in local pound nets heralded 

 a brief increase in abundance, caused by unusu- 

 ally successful spawnings to the south. By 1962 

 menhaden landings in the State had risen to the 

 highest level in recorded history since 1921. But 

 the drop in 1958 had stimulated development 

 of a new industrial fishery on mixed fish caught 

 in otter trawls (Figure 3). This fishery for a 

 while maintained the supply of industrial fish 

 despite the rapid decline in menhaden landings 

 after 1962, but the last year of substantial trawl 

 catches of industrial fish was 1965. The decline 

 of this trawl fishery had two principal causes, 

 reduced abundance of fish on the grounds fre- 

 quented by the fleet which was landing its catch 

 in New York and return of most of the vessels 

 to their home base in Rhode Island when the 

 reduction plant at Point Judith opened (Smith, 

 1967). 



In 1966, in a last desperate attempt to find al- 

 ternate resources, the purse seine fleet made sub- 

 stantial catches of alewives (Alosa pseudoha- 



rengus) and Atlantic herring (Clupea hareng- 

 us). The total catch of these two species (Fig- 

 ure 3) rose to more than 10 million pounds 

 (4,600 metric tons), several times greater than 

 any other year in recorded history. But this 

 was a relatively small supply of fish for the men- 

 haden plants, and the fishery lasted for only 1 

 year. The industrial fishing and processing in- 

 dustry of New York State has been virtually 

 non-existent since 1966. The remaining plant 

 on Long Island has closed, and the relatively few 

 menhaden now caught in New York waters are 

 taken to New Jersey for processing. 



FOOD FISHERIES 



As already mentioned, the history of the food 

 fish and shellfish industry of New York State 

 can be divided into three periods. Table 1 shows 

 the relative and the absolute importance of the 

 major species in four periods. It is clear even 

 from this condensed summary that the species 

 composition of the catch and the relative im- 

 portance of many of the species have changed in 

 complicated ways. It requires detailed consider- 

 ation of each of the important species to under- 

 stand how complex these changes have been and 

 what implications are contained in this history. 



Four sets of statistics were used in compiling 

 these summaries. The illustrations are based on 

 the Statistical Digests published annually by the 

 Federal Government. The latest available, when 

 background material for this paper was gath- 

 ered, was Lyles (1969), which contained data 

 for 1967. Since the 1950's the State of New York 

 and the Federal Government have jointly pub- 

 lished New York landings. The latest available 

 was Smith (1971), containing data for 1970. 

 Data on total commercial catches in the general 

 area, including foreign catches, were taken from 

 annual statistical bulletins compiled by the Inter- 

 national Commission for the Northwest Atlantic 

 Fisheries (ICNAF). The latest available was 

 for 1968 (International Commission for the 

 Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, 1970). The latest 

 compilation of marine sport fish catches avail- 

 able was for 1965 (Deuel and Clark, 1968). 

 Some data now are available on the 1970 ma- 

 rine sport fishing survey, but these could not be 

 obtained in time for inclusion here. 



589 



