FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 4 



limit of such species as the Atlantic cod; haddock, 

 Melanogrammus aeglefinus; American lobster, 

 Homarus americanus; and others which come 

 down from the north, and the northern edge of the 

 range of black drum, Pogonias cromis; red drum, 

 Sciaenops ocellatus; spot, Leiostomus xanthurus; 

 and other southern species. They also noted that it 

 is one of the most productive coastal regions in 

 North America, which in 1953 produced over 662 

 million lb (300,300 t (metric tons)) of fishes 

 and shellfishes, with an estimated value of $11.5 

 million to fishermen, and was capable of produc- 

 ing a great deal more. We could not reproduce 

 these figures exactly from the 1953 statistics, but 

 they were not far off. Total fishes were about 

 815 million lb (369,700 t), worth $12.7 million to 

 fishermen, and the total commercial catch for the 

 three States, including shellfishes, was about 891 

 million lb (404,200 t) worth about $31 million. By 

 1977 this had dropped to a commercial catch of 

 150 million lb (68,040 t) of fishes, 93 million lb 

 (42,200 t) of shellfishes, for a total of only 243 

 million lb (110,200 t) worth about $70.5 million to 

 fishermen. To this should be added 149 million lb 

 (67,600 t) of fishes and 24.7 million lb (11,200 t) of 

 shellfishes caught by recreational fishermen in 

 1974. These figures are not comparable with the 

 recreational catch in 1953, which was presumably 

 for the outer coast only, and did not include shell- 

 fishes. Nevertheless, it is fairly obvious that the 

 recreational catch was larger in 1974. In 1947 

 dollars the two values were almost identical, $38.7 

 and $38.9 million. This is not consistent with the 

 view that these fisheries were underexploited in 

 1953. 



Reintjes and Roithmayer (1960) extended these 

 studies for another 4 yr (1954-57 inclusive) and 

 concluded that the region supports large popula- 

 tions of resident species and seasonal concentra- 

 tions of migratory fishes. They concluded that 

 production of fishes and shellfishes in the area 

 appeared to be the highest per unit area in 

 the Western Hemisphere, and that the fisheries 

 generally were underexploited and underutilized. 

 Using Rounsefell and Everhart's (1953) criteria, 

 they found that of resident benthic species, such as 

 summer flounder, Paralichthys dentatus; black 

 sea bass, Centropristis striata; butterfish, Pepri- 

 lus triacanthus; and scup, Stenotomus chrysops; 

 only black sea bass appeared to be exploited at the 

 maximum. Sedentary benthic species included 

 surf clam and sea scallop, Placopecten magellani- 

 cus, and these and ocean quahog, Arctica island- 



576 



ica, and others were not overtaxed at that time. 

 Migratory coastal species, like Atlantic men- 

 haden, Brevoortia tyrannus; croaker; Atlantic cod; 

 silver hake; weakfish; spot; red hake, Urophycis 

 chuss; and bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix, fluctu- 

 ated widely and created greater instability in the 

 fisheries than any other component of the total 

 resource. Finally, migratory pelagic species like 

 tuna, Thunnus sp.; sharks. Class Chondrichthyes; 

 round herring, Etrumeus teres; sand lance, 

 Ammodytes sp.; squids, Loligo sp. and Illex 

 sp.; and others, were all abundant but in 1957 

 unexploited. 



Perlmutter (1959) on the other hand, consider- 

 ing the fisheries of a wider area, from New York 

 to Virginia inclusive, concluded that of the five 

 major species other than menhaden and ale- 

 wives — namely croaker, weakfish, scup, summer 

 flounder, and black sea bass — only black sea bass 

 appeared not to have declined in abundance. Thus, 

 the picture is not entirely clear, and previous 

 authors have not agreed. It must be pointed out, 

 however, that those authors were not looking at 

 precisely the same set of fisheries. 



Eight fish and shellfish species have produced 

 commercial landings >1,000 t (2,204,000 lb) in 

 Delaware at some time in the recorded history of 

 commercial fisheries in the State (Table 1). 

 Another 10 species have at one time or another 

 yielded commercial landings between about 1,000 

 and 100 t (2.2 million and 220,000 lb). Altogether, 

 in recorded history from 1880 to 1978 inclusive 

 (Pileggi and Thompson 1978), about 85 aquatic 

 species or groups of species have been recorded in 

 commercial or recreational marine fishery land- 

 ings in Delaware. All species or groups of species 

 are listed in Tables 1 and 2. Major species are 

 discussed later in descending order of maximum 

 annual landed weight. 



The commercial fisheries of Delaware have 

 been substantial in their time, peaking at nearly 

 167,000 t (370 million lb) in 1953 (Figure 1), but 

 falling off after 1962 to a low of only 305 t (673,000 

 lb) by 1968. This was once the fourth largest State 

 along the Atlantic coast in total landings. By far 

 the most important species in terms of weight was 

 menhaden, which reached a peak of 164,000 t 

 (>360 million lb) in 1953 (Figure 2). Setting aside 

 menhaden, which in most years made up the bulk 

 of the catch, and the horseshoe crab, Limulus 

 polyphemus, total food finfishes emerge as declin- 

 ing steadily since landings were first recorded 

 (Figure 3), beginning in 1887 with a total of nearly 



