559 



Abstract — Bluefish (PomalnmuK so/- 

 tutrix) were tagged and released in 

 Atlantic coastal areas between Mas- 

 sachusetts and Florida from 1963 

 through 2003 as part of a National 

 Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 

 project and a volunteer program 

 sponsored by the American Littoral 

 Society ( ALS I. A total of 15,699 blue- 

 fish were tagged by NMFS and 20,398 

 by ALS volunteers and A.39c (1075 

 NMFS tags and 464 ALS tags) were 

 recaptured and reported. Time-at- 

 large was limited; 65.8''?^ of the recap- 

 tured tags were returned within two 

 months of tagging, although nineteen 

 of the returned tags remained at large 

 for two years or more. Tag returns 

 indicated seasonal migrations offish 

 between the Middle Atlantic Bight and 

 Florida. Three groups of bluefish are 

 proposed for Atlantic coastal waters 

 on the basis of tag return data and are 

 defined by the seasonal occurrence 

 of fish between 30 and 45 cm fork 

 length. The northern group occupied 

 the area from Massachusetts to Dela- 

 ware between late spring and late fall. 

 Bluefish in the central region between 

 Maryland and North Carolina rep- 

 resented a combination of seasonal 

 transient and resident fish, as did 

 the southern group in Florida. Mixing 

 occurs among all three groups; and 

 larger fish (>45 cm) spend winters 

 in offshore areas. Estimates of von 

 Bertalanffy growth parameters 

 from tagging data were comparable 

 to scale-based estimates. Swimming 

 speeds between point of release and 

 recapture averaged 2.6 km per day, 

 and seasonal spikes greater than 5 

 km per day corresponded with periods 

 of migration in spring and autumn. 



The migration patterns of bluefish 

 iPomatomus saltatrix) along the Atlantic coast 

 determined from tag recoveries 



Gary R. Shepherd (contact author) 



National Marine Fisheries Service 



166 Water St 



Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 



Email address Gary.Shepherdig'noaa.gov 



Joshua Moser 



National Marine Fisheries Service 



166 Water St 



Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 



David Deuel (deceased) 



National Marine Fisheries Service 

 1315 East-West Highway 

 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 



Pam Carlsen 



BIdg. 18 Sandy Hook 

 American Littoral Society 

 Highlands, New Jersey 07732 



Manuscript submitted 9 May 2005 

 to the Scientific Editor's Office. 



Manuscript approved for publication 



19 December 2005 by the Scientific Editor 



Fish. Bull. 104:559-570 12006). 



Bluefish iPomatomus saltatrix) is 

 a pelagic species with a worldwide 

 distribution in temperate and sub- 

 tropical oceans. In the United States, 

 bluefish are found along the Atlantic 

 coast from southern Florida to Cape 

 Cod, Massachusetts, and occasion- 

 ally as far north as Nova Scotia (Col- 

 lette and Klein-MacPhee, 2002). The 

 broad-scale seasonal movements of 

 bluefish are known within the com- 

 mercial and recreational fishing com- 

 munities (Hersey, 1987), but details of 

 the migratory pattern remain poorly 

 documented in the scientific litera- 

 ture. Tagging studies provide the 

 most direct evidence of seasonal move- 

 ments, but the only published account 

 for the Atlantic coast stock is a study 

 in Long Island Sound by Lund and 

 Maltezos (1970). Wilk (1977) provided 

 a description of bluefish migration 

 that remains the accepted standard 

 and which was based on seasonal 

 distribution of commercial and recre- 

 ational catches, as well as on unpub- 

 lished results of a tagging project 

 conducted during the 1960s by David 



Deuel and colleagues at the NMFS 

 James. J. Howard Marine Sciences 

 Laboratory (formerly known as the 

 Sandy Hook Marine Laboratory). The 

 proposed migration involved a north- 

 south coastal movement between New 

 York-New Jersey offshore waters and 

 southeastern Florida offshore waters 

 during the fall and a return spring 

 migration along the same route. 

 Larger fish (i.e. greater than three 

 pounds) were believed to follow a more 

 offshore pathway. 



The identification of distinct blue- 

 fish stocks contributing to this mi- 

 gratory group has been the subject 

 of multiple investigations. The racial 

 composition of bluefish on the Atlantic 

 coast was investigated by Lund (1961) 

 who concluded, primarily from dif- 

 ferences in the number of gill rakers 

 of small bluefish, that six races ex- 

 isted along the coast. Lassiter (1962) 

 found differences in first year growth 

 on scales, which indicated that two 

 groups of fish inhabited North Caro- 

 lina waters. Returned tags from blue- 

 fish tagged in the Long Island area 



