UNIT 3 

 ATLANTIC ANADROMOUS FISHERIES 



Female 



spawning 



stock bionnass 



(X 1,000 t) 



14 - 



Landings 

 (X 1,000 t) 



Female 



spawning stock - 

 biomass 



Recruitment 

 (number of fish 

 at age 1 year 

 X 1,000,000) 



_i_ 



_Lj 



tion, restoration eHorts, in the form of stocking 

 jnd fish passage construetion, are underway in the 

 Connecticut, Pawcatuck, Merrimack, and Saco 

 rivers, hi these rivers, as well as in the Penobscot 

 River, some Atlantic salmon are also stocked as 

 smelts. The donor stocks for these programs are 

 largely from the Penobscot River. NMFS is in- 

 volved in assessing the viabilirv of these popula- 

 tions, the success of supplementation, and the con- 

 servation of these unique genetic resources. 



In U.S. rivers, juvenile salmon are resident in 

 freshwater streams for 2 or 3 years before migrat- 

 ing to the sea where they typically remain for two 

 winters. While at sea, they generally undergo ex- 

 tensive migrations to waters off Canada and 

 Greenland before returning to their natal rivers in 

 |une and spawning in November. 



The abundance of Atlantic salmon stocks in 

 Maine rivers is represented by estimates of catch 

 and run size (Figure 3-1 ). The abundance of ex- 

 tant U.S. stocks, like most stocks in North 

 America, has declined during the past decade. 

 Home-water fisheries (those in U.S. waters) are 

 limited to catch and release angling in Maine. Tag- 

 ging experiments conducted by the NMFS have 

 demonstrated that distant-water commercial 

 gillnet fisheries off Canada and Greenland had 

 previously exploited U.S. stocks at approximately 

 50%. Those commercial oceanic fisheries are now 

 regulated more stringently under the auspices of 



1995 1980 1985 1990 1995 



Year 



NASCO. Canadian interception fisheries have 

 been greatly curtailed, and the Greenland fisher\' 

 is quota controlled to allow for adequate spawn- 

 ing escapement. Despite these conservation mea- 

 sures, the overall abundance of Atlantic salmon 

 throughout North America continues to decline, 

 and several populations would be extirpated if 

 supplementation of them did not continue. 



Striped Bass 



Four primary stocks of striped bass occur along 

 the Atlantic coast: Hudson River, Delaware Bay, 

 Chesapeake Bay, and Roanoke River (North Caro- 

 lina). Striped bass stocks historically have sup- 

 ported important commercial and recreational 

 fisheries, with recreational harvests often equal- 

 ing or exceeding commercial landings (Figure 3- 

 2). Commercial fisheries use a variety of gears in- 

 cluding haul seines, trawls, pound nets, gillnets, 

 and hook-and-line. 



Commercial landings peaked in l')73 and then 

 began a precipitous decline. The declining land- 

 ings coupled with consistently poor recruitment 

 indices in the C'hesapeake Bay provided the im- 

 petus for highly restrictive management actions 

 taken by ASMFC] in the midl980's. Additionally, 

 C'ongress passed the Striped Bass Conservation Act 

 which empowered the Departments of Commerce 

 and Interior to impose a moratorium on striped 



Figure 3-2 



Commercial and recre- 

 ational landings and female 

 spawning stock biomass in 

 metric tons (t), and recruit- 

 ment of striped bass, 1954- 

 97 



1 05 



