NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



Landings in New Bedford, the leading sea scallop port, were up sharply in 1975, because of increased 

 landings from the Middle Atlantic grounds off New Jersey. These grounds, which in past years provided about 

 6 months' fishing, were fished for up to 10 months by regular sea scallop vessels in 1975. 



Scallop imports were 19.7 million pounds of meats valued at $37.2 million. This was an increase of 1.6 

 million pounds and $9.1 million from the previous year. Most of the imports were from Canada indicating 

 that Georges Bank was very productive. 



Northern shrimp . The northern shrimp fishery in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts continued to 

 have problems as the overall catch declined from 17.5 million pounds valued at $5.6 million in 1974 to 11.6 

 million pounds valued at $3.1 million in 1975. The quantity landed was 53 percent below the average for the 

 previous 5 years. The decline was due to a number of factors, including overfishing in the previous season, 

 price disputes, and closure by Maine officials of the Maine summer shrimp fishery to help restore depleted 

 stocks. The average price per pound paid to fishermen dropped from 31.8 cents per pound in 1974 to 26.3 

 cents in 1975, because of the unusually small shrimps. 



Maine led other States with a catch of 7.0 million pounds— 60 percent of the total, but still 2.8 million 

 pounds less that in 1974. Massachusetts catch was 4.6 million pounds (39 percent of the total) compared with 

 7.7 million pounds in 1974. New Hampshire landings were 65,000 pounds compared with 81,000 in 1974. 



Whiting . Landings of whiting were 33.2 million pounds valued at $2.8 million, increases of 12.7 million pounds 

 (62 percent) and $1.1 million (68 percent) compared with 1974. Landings in Massachusetts increased 115 

 percent and were 80 percent of the total New England catch. Landings at Maine ports declined 58 percent, 

 the lowest since 1938. At one time the whiting fishery was one of Maine's most productive fisheries. 



Unclassified industrial fish . Landings of unclassified species of fish for processing into industrial products 

 have been trending downward since 1967. In 1975, landings were 13.2 million pounds, a decline of 14.4 million 

 pounds compared with 1974. Most of the industrial fishes is caught incidental to fishing for edible stocks. 



Other information. Condensed summary data on the operating units and landings, by States, appearing in the 

 following pages have been published previously in Current Fishery Statistics No. 7405. Additional data may 

 be found in the monthly and annual landings bulletins for Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island published in 

 the Current Fishery Statistics series by the Data Management and Statistics Division in cooperation with the 

 respective States. 



Acknowledgements . The following organizations helped collect the data appearing in this section: Maine 

 Department of Marine Resources; New Hampshire Fish and Game Department; Massachusetts Department of 

 Natural Resources, Division of Marine Fisheries; Rhode Island Department of Natural Resources, Division of 

 Conservation; Connecticut State Board of Fisheries and Game; and Connecticut State Shellfish Commission. 



