270 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



He made the following statement about these 

 pound-net catches: (p. 258) 



The relation between pound-net catches and deviations 

 from the expected populations in the Connecticut River 

 cannot be fully evaluated at this time because the extent 

 to which the Connecticut River shad contribute to these 

 pound-net catches is not known. Additional tagging 

 studies conducted in the areas where pound nets are fished 

 would enable us to determine the effect of this fishing on 

 the Connecticut River shad runs. The causes of the 

 extraneous-mortality rate must be taken into considera- 

 tion in a management program to restore the Connecticut 

 River shad population to the level of abundance which 

 it held in the early 1940's. 



The extent of the shad fisheries in New York 

 Bay and along the Long Island and New Jersey 

 coasts can be seen from the 1945 catches of shad 

 reported by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 (1949). Total catches in pounds, by county, are 

 given south to north from southern New Jersey 

 to Long Island. 



Atlantic Co., N. J ..-60,700 



OceanCo.,N.J .. 690, 900 



Monmouth Co., N. J-. - 1, 173, 600 



Suffolk Co., L. I., N. Y- _ 217, 000 



This total New Jersey coast, Long Island, and 

 New York Bay catch is about two million pounds 

 while the combined total catch for the Hudson 

 and Connecticut Rivers is about 4.2 million pounds 

 for the same year. Of course the composition of 

 this New Jersey catch is the basic problem. If 

 it is primarily shad from southern rivers, this 

 catch can be disregarded in the management of 

 the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers. Conversely, 

 if this catch is predominantly Hudson and Con- 

 necticut River shad, it must be considered in any 

 management program because it represents one- 

 third of the total fishery. 



The Fish and Wildlife Service has carried out 

 some tagging experiments ' in the areas under 

 consideration. An examination of these tag re- 

 turns can supply a partial solution to the compo- 

 sition of these three catches. In 1945, 125 shad 

 were tagged at Seaside Park, N. J. The following 

 areas and numbers of recaptures were reported : 



Hudson River.. 20 



Connecticut River 3 



Delaware River 2 



Chesapeake Bay 4 



New York Ocean 2 



New Jersey Coast 5 



Maine Coast 1 



i Unpublished data, U. 8. Fishery Laboratory, Beaufort. N. C. 



In the same year 97 shad were tagged off Fire 

 Island Inlet, Long Island, N. Y., and were recov- 

 ered in the following areas: 



Hudson River 9 



Connecticut River 24 



Bay of Fundy 1 



Shad have been tagged off Staten Island, New 

 York Bay, in several different years, and the 

 following table gives the recoveries from these 

 experiments in which a total of 1,380 shad were 

 tagged. 



Hudson River 448 



Connecticut River 24 



Delaware River . 5 



Chesapeake Bay . 1 



Long Island 5 



New Jersey Coast 13 



Bay of Fundy 3 



These tagging experiments furnish us with some 

 information about the composition of the popula- 

 tions in these three areas. Most of the shad 

 tagged on the New Jersey coast migrated into the 

 Hudson River. Similarly, a major part of those 

 tagged off Staten Island were recaptured in the 

 Hudson River. On the coast of Long Island, most 

 of the fish tagged were recaptured in the Connect- 

 icut River. Very few of the fish tagged in these 

 areas were recaptured in other major shad rivers. 



The tag returns could be used in conjunction 

 with the catch statistics of the various areas to 

 estimate the composition of the catches. They 

 have been of considerable value in showing the 

 general composition of the catches in the areas 

 under question, and it is apparent that these 

 catches should be included in any analysis of the 

 catch and effort statistics for either river. Any 

 increase or decrease in effort in these areas will 

 be reflected in the number of shad entering the 

 rivers. 



Unfortunately, complete catch and effort sta- 

 tistics are not available for the New Jersey pound- 

 net fishery, so it is impossible to compare directly 

 past pound-net catches and mortality rates of 

 Hudson or Connecticut River shad. However, a 

 research project could be designed to show what 

 effect pound-net catches have on these mortality 

 rates. This could be done by dividing the pound- 

 net fishing areas into a number of geographical 

 strata. For each stratum the total catch and 

 effort would be needed. It would also be neces- 

 sary to estimate the composition of this catch (for 



