YELLOWTAIL FLOUNDER OFF NEW ENGLAND 



171 



available from the published reports of the United 

 States Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 1938, 

 when the several species of flounders were sep- 

 arated in the statistics, these records show land- 

 ings of yellowtail from Maine to New Jersey 

 (table 2). From north to south, the ports of 

 landing have included Gloucester, Boston, Plym- 



outh, Provincetown, Chatham, "Woods Hole, New 

 Bedford, Point .Judith, Stonington, Montauk, and 

 New York City, with a few smaller ports receiv- 

 ing minor quantities. Since 1941, 50 percent or 

 more of the yellowtail catch has been landed at 

 New Bedford. Mass., with no other port even 

 close in total volume. 



Table 2. — Annual United States landings of yellowtail, by ports and years, 1938-49 

 [In thousands of pounds; see appendix A. p. 237, for source of the data] 



1 Slight discrepancies occur due to rounding off of the figures. 

 ' Includes some estimates. 



PRODUCING AREAS 



In order to determine the catch of yellowtail 

 from each stock as defined on page 183, the locality 

 fished was determined for each vessel landing at 

 each port. Source of the catch has been obtained 

 for all species of fish for many years at the prin- 

 cipal ports of Boston, Gloucester, and Portland, 

 and since 1942 at the port of New Bedford, 

 where the collection of such information was com- 

 menced especially for the study of the yellowtail. 

 At these ports the captain or mate of each vessel 

 was interviewed to learn where he fished, how 

 long he fished, and what he caught. His catch 

 was then allocated to its statistical area (fig. 1), 

 according to the system described by Rounsefell 

 (1948). 



At the smaller ports of Plymouth, Province- 

 town, Chatham, Stonington, Point Judith, and 

 Montauk Point, the vessels were smaller and 

 fished closer to port. Usually, after interviews 

 with a few fishermen each year, the catch landed 

 at these ports could be allocated satisfactorily to 

 the one or two statistical areas concerned. At a 

 few other ports, where the vessels were larger and 

 interviews with the fishermen indicated that they 

 fished with the New Bedford fleet, the landings 



were allocated among statistical areas in propor- 

 tion to the New Bedford landings. The methods 

 of allocation are listed in appendix B, page 2- -, >s 

 and the resulting data are given in table 3. 



Table 3 is the basis for many of the computa- 

 tions in this paper that concern the yellowtail 

 populations, and it will be referred to repeatedly. 

 At this point we note merely the following points : 

 First, that the largest but also greatly fluctuating 

 catches have come from the adjoining statistical 

 subareas O, Q, S, and R, which are south of 

 Massachusetts and Rhode Island; second, that 

 moderate quantities of yellowtail have consist- 

 ently been caught near Cape Cod in subareas E 

 and G; and third, that the catches from Georges 

 Bank, subareas H, J, M, and N, greatly increased 

 from 1946 to 1949. 



These statistical subareas, separated by major 

 ecological and political boundaries, necessarily in- 

 clude a wide range of depth zones and bottom 

 types, and thus give rather a poor idea of the 

 ecological conditions preferred by the yellowtail. 

 To provide more precise knowledge of the local- 

 ities inhabited by this flounder, we have made a 

 special study of the catch landed at New Bedford 

 during 1943 and 1947 and allocated it to smaller 



