FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 3 



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1880 1890 1900 



1910 



1920 1930 



1940 



1950 I960 1970 



Figure 21. — Annual commercial landings of soup in the 

 State of New York, 1889-1970. 



over 14 million pounds (6,490 metric tons) in 

 1958. In fact, scup ranked first by weight of 

 all food fishes and shellfish landed in New York 

 from 1953 to 1961 inclusive. The subsequent de- 

 cline was abrupt, the catch dropping to just over 

 a million pounds (545 metric tons) in 1970. Al- 

 most all of the catch was made by otter trawls, 

 most of it beyond the 3-mile limit, and about 

 half of it landed at Fulton Market in New York 

 City. The causes of declining commercial catch- 

 es are not understood at all clearly. The total 

 domestic catch in 1970 was only about 10.5 mil- 

 lion pounds (4,770 metric tons), less than what 

 was landed in New York alone in 1958. The 

 foreign catch in 1968 was only about 5 million 

 pounds (2,255 metric tons). The total recre- 

 ational catch in 1965 was estimated to be about 

 37.6 million pounds (17,075 metric tons). 



Briggs (1968) found that scup were the most 

 important species by numbers caught in the 

 sport fisheries in the bays of eastern Long Island. 

 In 1965, for example, he estimated that the total 

 catch in this small area was over a million fish, 

 44^/r of the catch by numbers. The following 

 year the sport catch in the same area was reduced 

 by nearly 507f. Finkelstein (1969) noted that 

 from historical times scup were known to go 

 through extreme variations in abundance, from 

 great abundance to such scarcity that the species 

 was virtually absent for years. 



Edwards (1968) estimated that the standing 

 crop of scup from New York Bight north was 

 about 66 million pounds (30,000 metric tons) 

 per year from 1963 to 1965. Average annual 

 commercial landings in the same period were 

 about 10 million pounds (4,540 metric tons) , and 



thus the commercial fisheries were taking only 

 about 15'^f of the standing crop each year. It 

 would appear from all these estimates and other 

 data that if the decline in scup landings has been 

 caused by fishing, the sport fisheries have been 

 the principal contributing agent. However, it 

 appears equally likely that variations in spawn- 

 ing success could be the cause. Of course, when 

 the resource is at an extremely low level of 

 abundance, whatever the cause, it may be much 

 more vulnerable to heavy fishing intensity. 



FLOUNDERS 



The major species of flounder in the New York 

 catch are yellowtail, winter flounder or black- 

 back, and summer flounder or fluke. Other 

 names which appear in United States or ICNAF 

 statistics are gray sole {Glyptocephalus cyno- 

 glossus), which ICNAF calls witch; lemon sole, 

 which is simply a winter flounder that weighs 

 more than 31/2 lb. (1.6 kg); dab (Hippoglos- 

 soides platessoides) which is called American 

 plaice by ICNAF; and hogchoker (Trinectes 

 macidatus) . The last two, and perhaps some 

 other species, may be included under unidenti- 

 fied categories in New York landings. This 

 vernacular and scientific terminology is so con- 

 fusing that these names have been listed and 

 properly paired off" in Table 2 as compared with 

 the ofl^cial listing of the American Fisheries So- 

 ciety (Bailey, 1970). 



Individual species of flounder were not identi- 



Table 2. — Common and scientific names of flounders as 

 used in domestic (NMFS) and international (ICNAF) 

 statistics, and as endorsed by the American Fisheries 

 Society (AFS). 



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