GEORGES BANK HADDOCK— PART i: LANDINGS 



157 



Thousand.^ 



Year 1940: of pounds 



Fall 33 



Winter 1 , 097 



Year 1941: 



Spring 3, lo3 



Summer 1, 683 



Fall - 913 



Winter 339 



Year 1942: 



Spring 239 



Summer 380 



Fall 275 



Winter 362 



Year 1943: 



Spring 2,212 



Summer - 429 



Fall 25 



Seasons 



A "haddock year" is the summation of spring, 

 simimer, fall, and winter seasons, and differs from 

 a calendar year by one month. These seasons are 

 as follows: 



Months 



Spring February, March, April. 



Summer May, June, July. 



Fall August, September, October. 



Winter November, December, January (of 



following year). 



These seasons agree with the Georges Bank 

 haddock life-cycle better than any other 3-month 

 grouping, for the months of February, March, and 

 April constitute the spawning period. During 

 these months the size and age composition of the 

 catch is considerably different from that of each 

 of the other seasons. 



All data were collected initially on a monthly 

 basis, then assembled into seasons, and then into 

 haddock years. 



Segregating landings by subareas 



Inasmuch as different sizes of haddock are 

 caught on various parts of Georges Bank, we 

 wished in the initial steps of development of the 

 data to segregate the landings by subareas. For 

 the ports of Boston, Gloucester, New Bedford, 

 and Portland, accurate information was obtained 

 on the amounts of haddock landed from each 

 subarea. These ports received the bulk of the 

 total landings (88 percent for all years), thus we 

 allotted the remainder of the landings to subareas 



on the basis of the subarea contribution at these 

 ports. 



The subareas shown in figure 5 were in use from 

 1939 through 1948. In the years before 1939, 

 there were several different systems of naming 

 and segregating the various sections of Georges 

 Bank. The data from earlier years, therefore, 

 were arranged to conform, as much as possible, 

 to the modern subareas. One exception should 

 be noted, however. During the years 1931 

 through 1935, published statistics furnished a 

 breakdown by only (1) South Channel and Nan- 

 tucket Shoals, and (2) the rest of Georges Bank 

 proper — roughly J, M, and N of the modern 

 terminology. 



In all tables showing pounds and numbers of 

 fish, values were rounded off to the nearest 

 thousand. Total as well as individual values 

 were rounded off. Thus, individual values do 

 not add up exactly to the totals in some cases. 



POUNDS OF HADDOCK LANDED 



Table 1 shows the pounds of scrod and large 

 haddock landed from the four subareas of Georges 

 Bank bj" seasons and years, from 1931 through 

 1948. Whether particular subareas of Georges 

 Bank contributed more or less haddock in recent 

 years can be studied through this table. Their 

 importance, relative to one another, is shown in 

 table 2 (percent contribution by years, 1936-48 

 only). The landings are summarized, by seasons, 

 for scrod in table 3, for large in table 4, and for 

 total haddock in table 5. Landings by years only 

 are shown also in tables 3,4, and 5, and in figure 6. 



■43 44 45 46 47 46 



Figure 6. — Pounds of scrod, large, and total haddock 

 landed from Georges Bank, 1931 to 1948. 



954715 O - 51 



