26 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



method of sampling the total population cannot be entirely free from error, it is prob- 

 able that these curves represent the relative proportions of the different size- or age- 

 groups to one another fairly accurately for the general region of the Niantic and 

 Thames Rivers, Conn. The tendency of this species to school heavily, particularly 

 among the smaller size-categories, thus making them more available and easier to 

 catch, may have resulted in an over-emphasis on the relative numbers of the members 

 of the 1934 year-class. And the fact that the larger fish tend to lie among the rocks 

 in or near the surf, in places where they cannot be reached by seining, perhaps pro- 

 vides reason to suppose that these larger fish are not proportionately represented in 

 these graphs. On the other hand, evidence from samplings of the striped bass popula- 

 tion from commercial fishermen's nets in northern waters indicates that the 2-year- 



LENGTH FREQUENCIES OF ALL 

 STRIPED BASS MEASURED 

 rROM APRIL THROUGH OCTOBER. 1936 



LENGTH FREQUENCIES OF ALL 



STRIPED BASS MEASURED 

 IN CONNECTICUT WATERS FROM 

 APRIL THROUGH OCTOBER, 1937 



Figure 17.— Length-frequency curves of all the striped bass measured in Connecticut waters from April through October, 1936 

 and 1937. The data have been smoothed by threes throughout. See text for further discussion. See Table 11. 



olds in 1936 comprised over 85 percent of the stock available at this time (see fig. 8) 

 and that the members of this year-class continued to dominate the population in 1937 

 in spite of the fast rate of depletion of fish of this age due to the highly intensive 

 fishery (see figs. 5, 6, 7, and 8). Evidence from other samplings of the stock in north- 

 ern waters in the summer of 1937 shows that the 2-year-olds of 1937 are apparently 

 represented too strongly in the length-frequency curve for this year (see fig. 17). It 

 is difficult to account for the large proportion of 2-year-olds in the lower graph in 

 figure 17, but it is clear that they were not relatively as abundant in 1937 in all north- 

 ern waters (see fig. 5). It seems probable that the Niantic and Thames Rivers, where 

 most of the fish that make up the length-frequencies in figure 17 were taken, are espe- 

 cially favorable for the smaller sized (2-year-old) bass. 



The growth by months of the 2- and 3-year-olds seined in Connecticut waters 

 from June through October for 1936 and 1937 is shown in figure 18. It will be seen 

 that the 2-year-olds in June 1936 averaged about 29 cm., and that there was a steady 

 progression in the monthly modes through to October 1936 where the 2-year-olds 

 were roughly 37-38 cm. long. The 3-year-olds in 1936 showed much the same type 

 of growth, the modes of the monthly length-frequency curves for this age-group pro- 

 gressing from 40-41 cm. in June to 48-49 cm. by October 1936. The 2-year-olds of 



