NOTE Schwartz: Length-weight, age-growth, and landings of Archosargus probatocephalus 



831 



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M 

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I I 



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X- 



1885 1890 I90O 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 i960 1970 



YEAR 



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Figure 3 



North Carolina catch landings for sheepshead, 

 1989. Dashed lines indicate missing year data. 



1887- 



Like Hildebrand and Cable (1938) for Beaufort, NC, 

 and Springer and Woodburn (1960) for Gulf of Mexico 

 sheepshead, the smallest North Carolina sheepshead 

 were also captured between May and October. Note the 

 peculiar hiatus in the length frequency and length- 

 weight curve (Figs. 1, 2) for sheepshead 90-150 mmSL. 

 Absence of specimens within these size ranges may 

 have been caused by their shifting from a seagrass 

 habitat to piling, jetty, and other hard substrates 

 preferred by larger young and adults (Hildebrand and 

 Cable 1938, Johnson 1978). 



A search of major museums and taxidermist records 

 has failed to uncover sheepshead that attain the size 

 and weight (91 cm and 9-13.5 kg) reported in the 

 literature (Hildebrand and Schroeder 1928, Hildebrand 

 and Cable 1938, Bigelow and Schroeder 1953, Robins 

 and Ray 1986). Even if 91 cm was an accurate total- 

 length measurement, conversion to SL would make 

 that specimen 743 mm, a size far larger than even the 

 officially recognized world-record specimen from Loui- 

 siana (probably A. p. oviceps), which was 596 mmSL 

 and 730 mmTL, and weighed 9648 g (21 lb, 4 oz, and 

 plotted in Figure 1) and would fall far outside the 



length-weight data depicted in Fig. 1. This is strong 

 evidence that sheepshead do not attain the large sizes 

 mentioned in the literature. In essence, future litera- 

 ture should be emended to note that the maximum sizes 

 of sheepshead in North Carolina, to date, are 591 

 mmSL, 723 mmTL, weighing 8370 g, and elsewhere 

 596 mmSL, 730 mmTL, weighing 9248 g. All larger 

 sizes reported should remain or be considered 

 erroneous. 



A dramatic shift in the commercial landings of 

 sheepshead (mostly caught by haul seine) has occurred 

 in North Carolina between" 1887 and 1989 (Fig. 3) 

 (Chestnut and Davis 1975; Goode 1884; NC Div. Mar. 

 Fish, statistical data, Morehead City). Yarrow noted 

 (Smith 1907) that sheepshead were very abundant in 

 1871. Commercial catches prior to 1900 remained over 

 61500 kg. Catches between 1918 and 1981 remained 

 low (27000-47000 kg, lowest in 1970, 675 kg). Only 

 since 1981 has a recent surge been noted in the land- 

 ings (Fig. 3), mostly in Carteret County. 



Hildebrand and Cable (1938) and Johnson (1978) 

 noted that larval and juvenile sheepshead are usually 

 found associated with seagrasses which they depend 



