190 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



rV-i 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 



Table 12. — Percent length composition, by statistical area, 

 of yellowtail landed from the sotithern New England stock, 

 1943-47 



[See fig. 1 for chart of statistical areas] 



Table 13. — Percent length composition, by years, of yellow- 

 tail from the southern New England stock, 1941-47 



12- 



10- 

 Ld 



_l 

 < 8 



o 



en 



£ 6 



UJ 



o 



(E 4 



UJ 



a. 

 2 







947 



6,578 



22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 



LENGTH - CENTIMETERS 



Figure 10. — Percent length composition, by year, of yel- 

 lowtail from the southern New England stock, l!>41^i7. 

 (N= number of fish.) 



ermen were catching yellowtail in great quantities 

 accompanied by few other fish, and in such situa- 

 tions there is an understandable tendency to ice 

 down the entire catch and neglect the few fish that 

 might otherwise be culled. Furthermore, these 

 small fish were mostly from the 1941 year class, 

 which we later found was the largest year class to 

 occur during the period included in our study. 



Another explanation of the smaller average size 

 in 1942 might be less-representative sampling. 

 We have previously pointed out that routine sam- 

 pling began in October 1942 and, of course, a pre- 

 ponderance of measurements were obtained during 

 the fall season ; however, the size composition by 

 quarters indicates that the size during the fourth 



