McHUGH: MARINE FISHERIES OF DELAWARE 



tions. Catches were at a peak from 1953 to 1962, 

 averaging 136,828 t (301,649,000 lb), after which 

 they sharply declined, and the purse seine fishery, 

 which was the dominant gear used until then, 

 ended after the 1966 season. During this period 

 Delaware was the most important State along 

 the Atlantic coast in 1952 in menhaden landings, 

 second in importance from 1953 to 1958, and 

 second again in 1960 and 1961. 



The fishery in the vicinity of Delaware was 

 merely a phase of the fishery as a whole, which 

 began off Long Island, N.Y., during the Second 

 World War, and gradually shifted down the coast 

 as ground after ground was overexploited. 

 The peak was reached in 1974, off Virginia, and 

 catches declined substantially after that. The 

 Mid- Atlantic Council is now trying to manage the 

 resource, along with ocean quahog. 



Surf Clam 



Blue Crab 



Next to menhaden, surf clam produced the 

 greatest weight of landings in Delaware, 3,962 t 

 (8.7 million lb) in 1970. This was weight of meats 

 only, equivalent to 28,123 t (about 62 million lb), 

 live weight. This was not only the most recent 

 fishery in Delaware, having produced the first 

 small catch in 1956 (Figure 8), but also was rela- 

 tively short lived. The fishery developed quickly 

 but dropped to nothing by 1963, redeveloped in 

 1969, and produced its last catch in 1975. Figures 

 on landings, however, do not tell the whole story. 

 According to Daiber (footnote 4), a processing 

 plant has been situated at Lewes for approximately 

 20 yr. At first, dredge boats landed directly at 

 the plant, then as they fished farther away they 

 landed the catch at other ports and surf clams 

 were trucked to Lewes. More recently, vessels 

 became larger, and when they worked near the 

 mouth of Delaware Bay they landed at the docks of 

 the former menhaden plants and surf clams were 

 trucked the short distance to the processing plant. 

 The vessels are now landing in New Jersey, and 

 surf clams are trucked in, for the plant is still 

 operating. 



A small fishery for blue crab has existed in Dela- 

 ware waters since the early days. Landings were 

 not very large until after the Second World War, 

 then shot up to 2,000 t ( >4 million Ibi in 1950 and 

 1951 (Figure 9). They dropped sharply in 1952, 

 then rose gradually to nearly 2,265 t ( 5 million lb) 

 in 1957, then dropped off to about 90 1 (200,000 lb) 

 by 1968. Subsequently, they have risen again and 

 in 1975 and 1976 were 1,590 t (>3.5 million lb). 

 The decline in 1977 probably was caused by an 

 extremely cold winter. 



Blue crab is abundant north to Chesapeake Bay, 

 where it supports a major fishery. From Delaware 

 north it appears spasmodically, sometime existing 

 in great abundance, sometimes almost disappear- 

 ing. It extends north to Cape Cod, and occasionally 

 appears in the Gulf of Maine. The great variations 

 in availability from Delaware Bay north are prob- 

 ably explained on the basis of environmental 

 fluctuations, the major element of which is prob- 

 ably winter temperature. This is characteristic of 

 a species near the northern limits of its range. 



During the 1960's, however, it has been sug- 

 gested that the intensive use of DDT in control of 



Figure 8. — Commercial landings of 

 surf clam in Delaware, 1956-1975. 



90 



J \ L 



1900 



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40 



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YEAR 



583 



