202 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



Welsh and Brcder (1923, p. 183) stated that maturity is reached at the age of 3 

 or 4 years in the case of the Atlantic-coast fish, but did not explain whether spawning 

 took place at the beginning or at the end of the third or fourth year. Hildebrand 

 and Schroeder (1928, p. 284) estimated the roe of a female croaker, 39 centimeters 

 long (15.3 inches), taken in October, 1921, in Chesapeake Bay, to contain approxi- 

 mately 180,000 eggs of imiform development. 



SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION AND MOVEMENTS 



After entering the bays and lagoons the young croakers, voluntarily and other- 

 wise, are distributed throughout most of the inland waters. So abundant are they 

 and so hardy are the young that hardly a locality seined or trawled, either within the 

 bays or in the open Gulf, failed to yield large catches. Unlike the redfish and black 

 drum, large numbers of the young croakers remain in the Gulf, although shallow, 

 muddy, brackish-water lagoons and bays hold thousands of the young fish. The 

 young croaker when a year old on the approach of their second winter go into the 

 deeper waters of the bays and Gulf in large numbers, where many of them are caught 

 in the shrimp trawls that operate extensively at this time of year. 



By the end of the second year a marked reduction has taken place in the natural 

 abundance of the species. At this time a migration of the matured fish takes place 

 from the bays and lagoons to the Gulf, where the fish remain during the spawning 

 season and the following winter, to return again in small numbers the following 

 spring. Table 29 was compiled from miscellaneous catches of ripe croakers taken 

 from schools of fish on their way to the Gulf for spawning. Near Corpus Christi 

 P^ss is situated a large hole or depression in the channel leading into Laguna Madre 

 proper (Packery Channel), which at low tides is almost cut off from the waters of 

 the pass and the lagoon. During the fall of 1925 many ripening croakers temporarily 

 congregated in this hole on coming out of Laguna Madre on their way to the Gulf. 

 Fishing the depression at low tide would give large catches of these croakers, while 

 fishing after the following high tide would reveal that most of them had departed 

 through the pass into the Gulf. 



The causes for the probable great mortality after the first and second years of 

 life are unknown, but it is known that the fish seldom reach a desirable market size in 

 Texas waters. It may be that most of the croakers die after spawning, which would 

 explain the sudden decrease in abundance after the second winter. The following 

 quotations from Hubbs (1926, p. 59) may indicate some points to be considered in 

 explaining the smaller size of Texas croakers as compared with fish that dwell farther 

 north. 



The general growth inhibitions often ;ire associated with the ripening of gonads, the attain- 

 ment of maturity being marked by a cessation of growth in warm-blooded animals, and usually by 

 a sharp decline in the growth rate in the case of fishes and other animals exhibiting indeterminate 

 growth. Accelerating conditions hasten the inception of maturity and the associated decline in 

 growth rate * * * the abrupt and extensive retardation of growth under accelerating condi- 

 tions of development explains the general observation that fishes of cold or saline waters usually 

 attain a larger size than do individuals or races of the same species inhabiting warm or brackish 

 water, or both. 



