McHUGH: MARINE FISHERIES OF NEW YORK 



record. The estimated recreational catch in 1965 

 was nearly 19 million pounds (8,590 metric 

 tons). It appears that the decline of the do- 

 mestic mackerel fishery was a matter of declining 

 demand and that sport fishermen and foreign 

 fleets have willingly preempted the harvest. 



Edwards (1968) noted that mackerel have not 

 been abundant in the northwestern Atlantic re- 

 cently, but that abundance has been increasing. 



SEA BASS 



Landings of sea bass in New York fluctuated 

 around a level of about half a million pounds 

 (225 metric tons) a year until 1943 (Figure 19) , 

 when the catch began to rise sharply, reaching a 

 maximum of about 2.8 million pounds (1,270 

 metric tons) in 1951. Then the annual landings 

 began to drop just as sharply, and they are still 

 falling. Commercial landings in New York in 

 1970 were only about 70,000 pounds (32 metric 

 tons) . This is primarily a fish of shallow waters. 



zl5 

 o 



10 





X 1880 



/■ 



J_ 



_L 



1890 1900 1910 



1920 1930 



1940 



1950 I960 1970 



Figure 19. — Annual commercial landings of sea bass in 

 the State of New York, 1887-1970. 



and no landings have been reported by foreign 

 fleets in the ICNAF statistical areas. Sea bass 

 move off"shore to deeper water in winter, and 

 some may be included in the unidentified cate- 

 gory. Most of the domestic commercial landings 

 in New York are caught in otter trawls, and a 

 substantial part of this sea bass catch comes 

 from outside the 3-mile limit, if not beyond the 

 zone of domestic fishery jurisdiction. 



For the Atlantic coast as a whole the recre- 

 ational catch of sea bass in 1965 was estimated 

 to be nearly 11 million pounds (4,945 metric 

 tons) , more than 2.5 times the total commercial 

 catch on the Atlantic coast in 1970. Partial sur- 

 veys of the sport fisheries of Long Island, cited 



elsewhere, do not show that this is a very im- 

 portant recreational resource in this area. * 



The decline in sea bass landings in New York 

 is attributable at least partly to the decline of 

 the trawl and pound net fisheries. Landings in 

 New Jersey and the Chesapeake Bay States have 

 declined also, but neither as abruptly nor as soon. 

 It is not known whether the resource has been 

 overfished, and it appears that to some extent 

 the decline in commercial landings may have 

 been offset by increased recreational catches. 



2 



o 



j20 - 



15 - 



ujlO 



o 5 



LlI 



cr 

 o 



z 



i 



..■■V 



•A 



J_ 



_L 



'-K 



_L 



X 



J 



1880 1890 1900 1910 



1920 



1930 



1940 1950 I960 1970 



Figure 20. — Annual commercial landings of sea scallop 

 in the State of New York, 1887-1970. 



SEA SCALLOP 



The history of sea scallop landings in New 

 York has been generally similar to the history 

 of landings of the same species in New England 

 (Graham, 1968). The recent sharp decline in 

 New York landings (Figure 20) has the same 

 causes as the similar decline of the U.S. sea scal- 

 lop catch as a whole: increased catches by for- 

 eign fishermen, and generally poor survival after 

 the last highly successful spawning which rein- 

 forced the scallop population on Georges Bank 

 early in the 1960s. Sea scallop landings at Ful- 

 ton Fish Market declined abruptly after 1965, 

 and by 1970 the number of trips by scallop dredg- 

 ers landing their catch there had dropped con- 

 siderably. 



SCUP 



As illustrated by Figure 21, scup became in- 

 creasingly important in New York landings in 

 the 1940s and 1950s, reaching a maximum of 



599 



