FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 4 



Croaker produced 500 1 ( >1 million lb) in 1930 and 

 was down to nothing in 1961 for over a decade. 

 Spot produced almost 300 t (649,000 lb) in 1880 

 and was highly variable after that, dropping to 

 nothing in 1961 for over a decade, then showing up 

 again in 1975. Spot is salted down for personal use 

 by local fishermen, and some parts of the catch 

 are not reported. Striped bass was never a large 

 commercial producer in Delaware, and in fact 

 reached its peak in 1973 at about 265 t (586,000 

 lb). 



FOOD SHELLFISHES 



Landings of shellfishes, minus seed oysters, 

 which appear later as market oysters, and horse- 

 shoe crabs, which are used to make meal or as bait, 

 have an interesting history The principal species 

 are only four: American oyster, blue crab, surf 

 clam, and hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria. 

 The total take of these species has been highly 

 variable, fluctuating from almost nothing to 

 nearly 5,500 t (12 million lb), with different 

 species making up most of the landings at each 

 peak. Almost the entire peak in 1926 was made up 

 of American oyster (Figure 4), 1,554 t (3,426,000 

 lb). In 1951 and 1957 the major species was blue 

 crab, with American oyster second. Blue crab 

 landings peaked in 1951 and 1957 at 2,260 t 

 (nearly 5 million lb). The peak in 1972 was caused 

 mostly by landings of 3,879 t (8,551,000 lb) of 

 surf clam. 



American oyster was relatively high in the 

 early days, dropped to a low of only 22 t (48,000 lb) 

 in 1943, peaked again from 1947 to 1958 with 

 a maximum of 1,968 t (4,340,000 lb) in 1954, 

 reached an all-time low of 15 t (33,000 lb) in 1961, 

 and since has come back partially, reaching a high 

 of 230 t (509,000 lb) in 1972. Blue crab dropped 

 to a low in 1968, and since have risen to 1,655 t 

 (3,650,000 lb) in 1976. Surf clam did not appear 

 in landings until 1956, rose to a peak of 773 t 

 (1,705,000 lb) in 1959, dropped to nothing in 1963, 

 showed up again in 1969, peaked in 1970 at 3,962 t 

 (8,734,000 lb), and dropped again to nothing 

 in 1976. Hard clam built up to a peak of 414 t 

 (912,000 lb) in 1951 and dropped to a low of 15 t 

 (34,000 lb) in 1975. The only one of the four that 

 appears to be reasonably healthy at the present 

 time is the blue crab, but judging from past fluctu- 

 ations blue crab can not be depended upon 

 to maintain a healthy fishery, even if adequate 

 management measures were in effect. Blue crab is 



near the northern limit of its range in Delaware, 

 and probably can be expected to fluctuate widely 

 for that reason. 



RECREATIONAL FISHERIES 



The recreational fisheries of Delaware, like 

 marine recreational fisheries almost everywhere, 

 are not well known. It can safely be assumed that 

 they are growing, if the national surveys are a 

 criterion, for catches have risen from 80,741 1 ( 178 

 million lb) of food finfishes in 1960 to 121,564 t 

 (about 268 million lb) in 1974. The rate of rise 

 may have been greater than this, for in 1965 the 

 estimated catch dropped to 58,060 t (128 million 

 lb). These catches, however, are for the area from 

 New York to Cape Hatteras, except for 1974, 

 which did not include any part of the North Caro- 

 lina coast. Only in 1974 was an estimate made of 

 the Delaware catch, at about 2,903 t (6.4 million 

 lb) of food finfishes, plus 1,814 t (about 4.0 million 

 lb) of shellfishes. This consisted of 1,723 t (about 

 3.8 million lb) of weakfish, 227 t ( about 500,000 lb) 

 of bluefish, 84 1 ( 185,000 lb) of sharks, 69 1 ( 153,000 

 lb) of summer flounder, 227 t (500,000 lb) of other 

 fishes; 998 1 (2.2 million lb) of hard clam, 816 t (L8 

 million lb) of soft clam, Mya arenaria, and a small 

 amount of other shellfishes. If these figures are at 

 all realistic, the food finfish catch of recreational 

 fishermen in Delaware is substantially higher 

 than the commercial catch. 



This is confirmed by figures contained in sport- 

 fishing surveys conducted in 1953, 1954, and 1955. 

 Using average weights of fishes from the 1970 

 saltwater angling survey (Deuel 1973), it was 

 estimated that recreational fishermen caught 

 1,814 t (nearly 4 million lb) of fishes in 1955, which 

 compared with 1,225 t (about 2.7 million lb) of the 

 same species in the commercial catch. Estimates 

 of recreational catches covered a period of only 

 about 3 mo, whereas the commercial catch covered 

 the entire year. Consequently, it is probably a 

 conservative estimate that recreational fisher- 

 men took at least twice as much as commercial 

 fishermen. 



Later estimates made the discrepancy even 

 greater, and this is not surprising, for the numbers 

 of anglers were increasing also (Deuel 1973). 

 Miller (1978) estimated that the recreational 

 catch in 1977 was about 5.8 million fishes, plus 

 considerable quantities of blue crab and hard 

 clam. By weight, this would be perhaps 3,402 t (7.5 

 million lb), which was three times as great as the 



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