156 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Thus United States fishermen were the only 

 ones to land haddock from Georges Bank. How- 

 ever, we could not use the total of all United 

 States landings of haddock for this study because 

 United States fishermen took varying quantities 

 of haddock from other banks as well as from 

 Georges. 



Inasmuch as Georges Bank lies at a considerable 

 distance off shore, it is exploited mainly by large 

 vessels. These vessels land at only a few ports 

 where, for the most part, accurate records have 

 been kept on the origin of haddock landings. 

 Thus for Boston and Gloucester we were able to 

 determine the quantities of haddock landed from 

 Georges Bank each year. We included also in 

 our tabulations the quantities of Georges Bank 

 haddock landed at Portland, Maine, during the 

 years 1931 to 1946. And beginning in 1942, 

 landings of haddock at the port of New Bedford 

 became quite large, so the New Bedford landings 

 of Georges Bank haddock for the years 1942 to 

 1948 were included. As almost all haddock 

 landed at New York City are taken from the 

 Georges area, the total of that port's landings for 

 all years also were included. We included also the 

 total landings for Groton, Conn, for 1931 and 

 1932 — landings at this port were negligible after 

 1932. To these quantities, we added the entire 

 amount of haddock landed on Cape Cod, which 

 lies next to Georges Bank. This is the only area 

 where small boats land Georges Bank haddock, 

 and almost all landings there are from Georges. 



The sums of these quantities we have accepted 

 as the total poundages ^ of haddock originating in 

 the Georges area that were landed and sold. 



Categories of fish 



Immediately after capture at sea, haddock are 

 separated into two market categories, scrod and 

 large. This division of the catch makes it 

 necessary to collect complete data on each market 

 category and later to combine the data to obtain 

 total statistics for the species haddock. 



As defined by the New England Fish Exchange, 

 scrod haddock (scrod) are those weighing from 1 K 



' Sources of data are the former U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and the present 

 U. S. Fish and Wildhfe Service publications. "Current Fishery Statistics" 

 for all years, and unpublished records of various fish companies a.ssembled by 

 William C. Henington. 



to 2K pounds (gutted weight), and large haddock 

 are those weighing more than 2^ pounds. These 

 definitions are only approximate owing to varia- 

 tions in culling and to a practice of marketing, as 

 scrod, many fish weighing less than IK pounds. 



We have tabulated records of the landings for 

 both market categories, large and scrod, for all 

 years. Small amounts of "mixed" haddock were 

 added to scrod in New Bedford. When OPA price 

 control regulations were in effect (which allowed a 

 higher price for "large" haddock). New Bedford 

 landings showed an artificial scarcity of scrod and 

 an overabundance of large. For the period July 

 1943 to June 1946, therefore, we used the percent- 

 age that scrod made up of the monthly total of 

 scrod and large for the ports of Boston, Gloucester, 

 and Portland, from any subarea in any month, to 

 estimate the proportion of scrod in the New 

 Bedford landings from these same subareas in that 

 month. 



Where we refer to "undersized" haddock we 

 mean those less than IK pounds, the lower limit of 

 the market category of scrod, although at present 

 there is no State or Federal regulation that 

 classifies such fish as imdersized. When we refer 

 to "total haddock" or merely "haddock", we 

 mean the total of all haddock regardless of market 

 category. 



Most haddock are landed as drawn or gutted 

 fish, but some are landed in the "round". Where 

 poundages of fish in the round were obtained, they 

 were reduced by 15 percent. Thus all poundages 

 are in terms of gutted fish. 



Landings of large haddock in the round were 

 negligible but landings of round scrod were more 

 numerous and were of two types, (1) regular-sized 

 scrod that were left ungutted because of rough 

 weather or gluts of fish on deck, and (2) unusually 

 small-sized scrod, or baby scrod. Landings of 

 baby scrod became unusually large in the winter 

 of 1940, owing to a scarcity of large haddock and 

 a high abundance of baby haddock (year class 

 1939). 



The landings of baby scrod from the winter of 

 1940 to the summer of 1943 were considered to be 

 so large that in the initial steps of the analysis 

 they were treated separately from scrod or large 

 haddock. These landings of baby scrod amounted 

 to approximately the following: 



