422 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



it had been in 1906. And this was the beginning 

 of the end, for only 8,249 pounds were reported 

 there in 1908, 569 pounds in 1909, and 907 

 pounds in 1910. 



We do not know of the capture of a single 

 weakfish that can be credited with certainty to 

 the outer shore of Cape Cod, to Cape Cod Bay, 

 or to the northern shore of Massachusetts Bay 

 from that time on, down to 1921 (most recent 

 year for which the pound net catches were 

 published in detail), when 21 pounds were reported 

 for the town of Barnstable. 84 We should em- 

 phasize too that about the same number of pound 

 nets and traps have been operated from year to 

 year throughout this period and at about the 

 same general localities, so that fluctuations in 

 the catch did actually reflect similar fluctuations 

 in the stock of fish. 



There is no reason to suppose that weakfish have 

 ever entered Cape Cod Bay in an} 7 numbers since 

 that time. Only one, indeed (a 5-pounder), was 

 recorded, from one set of 8 traps at North Truro 

 during the 16 years 1935-1950 ; 85 another set of 2 

 traps at Barnstable, took only 3 weakfish during 

 the summer of 1950; 86 and 3 other traps at Sand- 

 wich, Mass., took 2 weakfish in 1948, 1 in 1949, 

 and none in 1950. 87 



We doubt whether any weakfish have reached 

 the northern side of Massachusetts Bay since 1909, 

 when 200 pounds were reported from a pound net 

 at Gloucester. Large landings, it is true, have been 

 reported as from the northern part of the Massa- 

 chusetts coast (Essex County) in several recent 

 years, ranging up to some 3,600,000 pounds in 

 1945. But there is no reason to suppose that any 

 of them were caught north of Cape Cod for we are 

 informed by William Royce of the Fish and Wild- 

 life Service that all fish taken by vessels sailing out 

 of Gloucester during these years were credited to 

 that port, irrespective of where caught or where 

 landed. The fish may have come from as far 

 south as the North Carolina winter fishery. And 

 this applies equally to a few that were credited to 



8 < No catch statistics are available for the years 1912-1916, and there is no 

 knowing whether any of the weakfish reported for Barnstable Co., in 1919 

 (962 pounds) came from the northern (i. e.. Cape Cod Bay) shore. 



« Information from the Pond Village Cold Storage Co. 



"Information fiom John E. Vetorino, who operates these traps. One 

 hundred twenty-three pounds reported from Barnstable County In 1928, and 

 101 pounds in 1929, may likely have come from the Vineyard Sound shore, not 

 from the Cape Cod Bay shore. 



" Information from Benjamin Morrow, who operates these traps. 



Maine in 1931 (45 pounds) and in 1932 (318 

 pounds). 



We can offer no explanation for this unexpected 

 invasion of weakfish north of Cape Cod about the 

 turn of the present century, or for its equally 

 sudden eclipse, the opportunity having passed long 

 since for obtaining any information as to the sizes 

 and ages of the fish, as to their movements, and as 

 to the physical state of the water at the time. It 

 was not a local event, however, but part of a 

 corresponding fluctuation in the population as a 

 whole existing east and north of New York. Thus 

 the catch for the southern coast of New England 

 was more than eight times as great in 1904 (upward 

 of 7 million pounds) as it had been in 1889 (about 

 830,000 pounds), but thereafter declined so 

 markedly that in 1908 both the commercial fisher- 

 men and the anglers of Rhode Island and of 

 southern Massachusetts complained of the scarcity 

 of weakfish. Less than 400,000 pounds were 

 taken off southern New England in 1919, and the 

 weakfish had so nearly vanished from the southern 

 shores of Massachusetts by 1920 and 1921 that the 

 reported catches for the pound nets of the State 

 were only 785 and 691 pounds, respectively, for 

 those years. 88 We should emphasize that the 

 partial recovery that then took place off the 

 southern Massachusetts coast, where the average 

 catch was again Dearly a quarter of a million 

 pounds during the period 1931-1938, did not bring 

 the weakfish back to Cape Cod Bay. 



It has often been suggested that weakfish are 

 plentiful when bluefish are scarce, and vice versa, 

 and the argument has been advanced that the 

 latter not only devour fry of the weakfish but its 

 food also, and hence not only destroy many but 

 drive others away. But no convincing evidence 

 has been brought forward that the fluctuations of 

 these two species of fish are mutually dependent 

 in any way. 



Importance. — At the present time the weakfish 

 is of no importance in the Gulf of Maine, whether 

 commercially or to the angler, though it was a very 

 valuable addition to the shore fisheries of Cape Cod 

 Bay during its one brief period of plenty there. 

 However, it is one of the most important of food 

 fishes along more southern coasts, 89 and a favorite 



»< No statistics are available for the years 1922-1929. 



'» In 1946, the reported catch of weakfish of this species was about 3,252,000 

 pounds for southern New England; 11,715,000 pounds for the Middle Atlantic 

 States: 20,557,000 pounds for the Chesapeake Bay region; and 4,770,000 pounds 

 for the South Atlantic States. 



