McHUGH: MARINE FISHERIES OF DELAWARE 



highly seasonal demand, and the growing ease of 

 trucking or flying shad from the south, where runs 

 are much earlier, probably also played a part, 

 as they did in New York (Medeiros 1974). Recre- 

 ational fishing for shad in the Delaware River is 

 growing (Grucela 1978) in landings and effort. 

 The Delaware River stock is in good condition as 

 compared with other rivers in the area. 



Croaker 



Croaker appeared later than weakfish in Dela- 

 ware (Figure 15), reaching its peak in 1930 with 

 about 500 t (slightly over 1 million lb). Thereafter 

 it fell off irregularly, producing no catches after 

 1960 until 1975. Croaker, like weakfish, is a south- 

 ern fish, and comes north of Chesapeake Bay only 

 when conditions are particularly favorable, or 

 when populations are high. Thus its abundance 

 is likely to remain quite variable. The complete 

 absence of croaker as a commercial resource 

 during the 1960's and early 197 O's may also have 

 been caused by extensive use of DDT in estuaries, 

 enhanced also by the stresses of living at the 

 northern extreme of its range. Recovery in the 

 mid-1970's may have been a delayed response to 



banning the use of this compound for mosquito 

 control. 



Hard Clam 



Hard clam did not figure prominently in the 

 catch in Delaware until after the Second World 

 War (Figure 16) when stabilization of Indian River 

 Inlet raised the salinity in the bay behind, and 

 improved the environment for hard clam. It did 

 not remain high for very long, however, and 

 fell irregularly but steadily after 1951, when the 

 maximum catch was about 414 1 ( 912,000 lb) to 17 1 

 (38,000 lb) in 1977, a drop of nearly 96%. It 

 is probable that the decline was caused by a 

 combination of overharvesting and pollution, 

 which closed certain areas to clamming. Recre- 

 ational clamming also is popular in Delaware 

 (Miller 1978). 



Spot 



Spot is reported to have produced 295 1 (650,000 

 lb) in Delaware in 1880, but was not reported 

 again in catches until 1904 (Figure 17). This 

 species is often caught by fishermen for their own 



Figure 15. — Commercial landings 

 of Atlantic croaker in Delaware, 

 1880-1977. 



o 





o 

 to 



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 Q 



z 

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5 h 

 4 

 3 

 2 







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-'T^N^^'i V-»^-^1 I I I I '■^ I \ CiA^ 



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80 90 1900 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 



YEAR 



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— J-OO0'»<-0-U.V-U.-.J-^i— 1 L-^1 







1880 90 



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Figure 16. — Commercial landings 

 of hard clam in Delaware, 1880-1977. 



1900 



10 



20 



30 



40 



50 



60 



70 



YEAR 



587 



