NOTE Kennelly: Discard rates for Stenotomus chrysops 



187 



determine which depths 

 yielded consistently high 

 rates. Once these depths 

 were identified, the dis- 

 card rates of scup in 

 these tows were plotted 

 against time to determine 

 the particular months 

 when the high discards 

 occurred. In this way, the 

 large observer data set 

 for the region was fo- 

 cussed to identify the 

 particular areas, depths, 

 and months that yielded 

 high discard rates for 

 scup. Finally, catches of 

 other common species in 

 these identified areas 

 and times were examined 

 by plotting their retention 

 and discard rates. 



Results 



Figure 2 shows the aver- 

 age discard rates for scup 

 (in pounds per hour 

 towed) for the areas de- 

 fined in Figure 1. All ar- 

 eas other than 526, 537, 

 539, 613, 615, 616, 621, 

 622, and 623 showed low 

 discard rates for scup 

 (defined as a maximum 

 rate of less than 20 Ib/h) 

 or low levels of observer 

 coverage (defined as less 

 than 10 observed tows 

 during the study), or 

 both. 



Figure 3 shows discard 

 rates for scup against the 

 depth of the tows sampled 

 in each of the areas iden- 

 tified in Figure 2 above. 

 Most areas recorded high 

 discard rates across a 

 range of depths, except 

 areas 613 and 621 which 

 showed marked concen- 

 trations from 30^0 fath- 

 oms (fm) and 6-17 fm 

 respectively. 



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