Shepherd et a\ Migration routes of Pomatomus saltan ix along the Atlantic coast 



561 



45°N' 



42 N. 



39"N - 



36°N 



33"N 



30 N - 



27°N- 



i ME 



' /NHl/^ 



MA 



VA 





iyihi0(l^ 



yini 



9l4ni 



Northern 



'^,; 



NC ^*?- 

 ^9 



SC 





Cenlr.il 



GAf  • 



FL 



\* 



Southern 



NMFS Release Sites 

 Frequency 



• 1-50 



• 51-500 



• 501-2000 

 #2001-5700 



su.y 



')lm 



014m 



<>' 



Central 



PL 



ALS Release Sites 

 Frequency 



• 1-50 



• 51-500 



• 501-2000 



• 2001-5700 



^-^• 



—I 1 



72' W 69 W 



— 1 1 



81°W 78 W 



75 \V 



72 W 



69 W 



SIW 



7S"W 



75°W 



Figure 1 



Distribution of release sites (by region) for bluefish {Pomatomus saltatrix) released during National 

 Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (1963-1967) and American Littoral Society (ALS I (1983-2003) tagging 

 programs. 



L,, + (L, 



L,,)(l -e-^-^'O, 



where L,^ = length at time of recapture; 



L, , = length at time of release; and • 

 4?, = change in time (years) between release and 

 recapture. 



Parameter estimates were derived by using the SAS 

 NONLIN procedure (SAS Inst.. Inc., Gary NC). ALS and 

 NMFS data were modeled separately because of a differ- 

 ence in the resolution of size measurements at release 

 (centimeters for NMFS and inches for ALS). Bluefish 

 at large less than 14 days, or fish with zero or negative 

 growth, were excluded from the calculations. 



Geographic distributions for tag recoveries were com- 

 pared with commercial catch locations of bluefish re- 

 ported from the Middle Atlantic Bight. NMFS vessel 

 logbooks from commercial fishermen in the Northeast 

 region contain information about landings, discards, 

 and the spatial location of catch. Bluefish catch loca- 

 tions from 2001 to 2003 were summarized by month 

 for all gear types. Length samples (measured to the 

 nearest cm) collected by NMFS port agents from com- 

 mercial landings were expanded to represent length 

 distributions of total reported landings. 



Results 



During 1963 to 1967, the NMFS bluefish project tagged 

 and released 15,699 bluefish; of these, 11,624 fish (74.0%) 

 were captured with gill nets. 1393 (8.89i: ) with hook and 

 line, 907 (5.8%) from beach seines, and 1775 (11.3%) 

 from pound nets. Included in the hook-and-line total 

 were 224 fish tagged by volunteer sportsmen in south 

 Florida, New Jersey and New York (which resulted in 17 

 recaptures). The number of bluefish tagged and released 

 are summarized by month and area in Table 1. From 

 1983 to 2003, recreational hook-and-line fishermen in 

 the ALS tagging program caught and released 20,398 

 bluefish. Later recaptures totaled 1539 fish, of which 

 1075 were NMFS tagged and 464 were ALS tagged. 



The NMFS rate of tag return varied by capture meth- 

 od, tag type, and tagging area. The highest return 

 rates (9.6 %) were from pound net releases that could 

 be attributed, in part, to a high recapture rate immedi- 

 ately after tagging. The second highest percentage (6.9 

 %) and largest number of recaptures (802) were fish 

 captured with gillnets. Although only 4.7%> of the fish 

 released from hook-and-line gear were returned, over 

 half of these released fish were from the first year of the 

 tagging program (775 fish tagged, 16 returned, 2.1%), 



