tifying the contents offish stomachs collected in 



1977. 



Literature Cited 



MITO, K. 



1974. Food relationships among benthic fish populations 

 in the Bering Sea on the Theragra ckalcograninia fishing 

 ground in October and November of 1972. (In 

 Jpn.l M.S. Thesis, Hokkaido Univ.. Hokkaido, Jpn.. 135 

 P 



Takahashi, Y., and H. Yamaguchi. 



1972. II — 2. Stock of the Alaska pollock in the Bering Sea. 

 [In Jpn., Engl. summ. on p. 418-419, J In Svmposium on 

 the Alaska pollock fishery and its resources, p. 389-.399. 

 Bull, Jpn. Soc Sci. Fish. 38. 



KEVIN Bailey 

 Jean Dunn 



Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center 



National Marine Fisheries Sennce. NOAA 



2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle. WA 98112 



FECUNDITY OF THE ATLANTIC MENHADEN, 

 BREVOORTIA TY'RANNVS 



Although some work has been done to determine 

 the time and place of spawning, age of spawning, 

 and fecundity of Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia 

 tyrannus (Higham and Nicholson 1964), no at- 

 tempt has been made to relate fecundity and age. 

 In this study, I 1 ) examined the ovaries offish 1 to 5 

 yr old collected during autumn 1970, in the vicin- 

 ity of Beaufort, N.C.; 2) estimated the number of 

 ripening ova in sexually mature fish; 3) calculated 

 the mean number of ova spawned by fish of each 

 age; and 4) determined the reproductive potential 

 and the net reproductive rates for the 1 954-63 year 

 classes. 



Atlantic menahden, family Clupeidae, consti- 

 tute a single biological population (Nicholson 

 1972, 1978; Dryfoos et al. 1973) inhabitating 

 coastal waters from Florida to the Gulf of Maine. It 

 is subjected to an intensive purse seine fishery 

 from Florida to New England. Fish are landed 

 daily at reduction plants and processed into meal, 

 oil, and solubles. Fishing begins in Florida and 

 North Carolina in late April, in New Jersey coast- 

 al waters in early June, and in New England wa- 

 ters in late June. Fishing usually ends in mid to 

 late November, except in the vicinity of Beaufort 



where schools of migrating fish of all ages from 

 northern areas provide an intensive fishery from 

 November to late December or early January. 



Atlantic menhaden make extensive coastal 

 movements and during the fishing season are 

 stratified along the coast by age and size. In au- 

 tumn most fish north of Virginia move southward 

 and by January are concentrated in offshore wa- 

 ters from Cape Hatteras to northern Florida. 

 About mid-March they begin a northward move- 

 ment and by mid-June are stratified in coastal 

 waters by age and size, the younger and smaller 

 farther south and the older and larger farther 

 north (Nicholson 1971). South of Cape Hatteras 

 and in Chesapeake Bay most fish are ages 1 and 2. 

 Age-2 fish dominate in coastal waters off New 

 Jersey, ages 3 and 4 in Long Island Sound, and age 

 4 and older north of Cape Cod. Although they may 

 live to age 9, few older than age 6 are caught. 



Menhaden spawn in offshore coastal waters 

 where the eggs hatch in 36 to 48 h (Reintjes 1962). 

 Larvae, carried inshore by ocean currents, enter 

 estuaries where they metamorphose to the adult 

 form at about 35 mm total length. Although some 

 spawning occurs in summer and early autumn in 

 Long Island Sound and New England waters — 

 the only areas where fish of spawning age are 

 found during that time — most spawning occurs in 

 the South Atlantic area from January to March 

 and in the Middle Atlantic area from October to 

 December and March to May. Although there ap- 

 pears to be only one spawning cycle each year, 

 evidence is uncertain as to whether Atlantic 

 menhaden are fractional spawners (Higham and 

 Nicholson 1964). 



As the population size decreased in the 1960's 

 age structure also changed. Fish older than age 3 

 became extremely scarce, and most plants in the 

 northern areas that were dependent on older fish 

 closed. By 1969 few fish older than age 4 were 

 landed, even in the North Carolina fall fishery, 

 which traditionally had been dependent on older 

 fish (Nicholson 1975). 



Collection and Preparation of Ovaries 



Ovaries were collected from 17 November to 29 

 December 1970 during the North Carolina fall 

 fishery at the same time catches were being sam- 

 pled routinely for age and size (June and Reintjes 

 1959). Sampling personnel measured and weighed 

 the fish, removed scales for aging, and removed 

 the ovaries. Only ripening ovaries fitting the 



308 



FISHERY BL'I.I.ETIN VOL 77. NO I.li)7() 



