GEORGES BANK HADDOCK PART i: LANDINGS 



153 



Georges Bank haddock — before the Nova Scotian 

 haddock. 



The Georges Bank region comprises most of 

 International Area XXII, shown in figure 4. 

 International Area XXII was established by the 

 North American Council en Fishery Investigation 

 when the western North Atlantic Ocean was 

 divided along natural, political, and ecological 

 lines. By Georges Bank we mean specifically the 

 following subareas (fig. 5) of Area XXII: 



International 

 subarea 



1. Northern Edge and Northeast Peak J 



2. Southeast Part of Georges M 



3. Southwest Georges N 



4. South Channel and Nantucket Shoals G, H, O ' 



' Data include very small quantities from subareas Q. R. and S. 



The manner by which these subareas were 

 established is described by Rounsefell (1948). 



ORGANIZATION OF STUDY 



Russell (1942) has expressed the dynamics of a 

 fish population by the equation 



S, + (0+R)-{C+N) = S2 

 where 



51 = size of population at the beginning of the 

 year, 



G= additions to the population during the year 

 by growth, 



i?= additions to the population by recruitment 

 of young fish, 



C= deductions from the population during the 

 year by fishery, 



N = deductions from the population during the 

 year due to natural mortahty, 



52= size of population at the end of the year. 



The main problems, as we see them, are (1) to 

 obtain accurate measures of the various quantities 

 expressed in this equation for each year, (2) to 

 determine what effect variations of catch, natural 

 mortahty, growth, and recruitment have had on 

 the size of the stock, (3) to determine what effect 

 variations in the size of the stock have had upon 

 each of these factors, and (4) to show what effect 

 other factors in the environment (hydrographic 

 conditions and stocks of other species of competing 

 fishes) have had upon (a) the size of the stock and 

 (6) the four factors — catch, growth, recruitment, 

 and natural mortality. 



With this information at hand, if the relative 

 effects of the fishery and of the environment on 



the stock are sufficiently clear, it should be possible 

 (1) to predict the abundance and production of 

 haddock, and (2) to determine what measures, if 

 any, would maintain or increase the catch of 

 haddock from the important populations. 



Most of the material in this series is devoted to 

 solving these problems. The purpose of the re- 

 mainder of the present paper is restricted to deter- 

 mining the total landings of Georges Bank haddock 

 for each season and year, 1931 to 1948, in terms 

 of pounds, numbers, average weights, and numbers 

 of each size. 



Obtaining "total" values impHes adding together 

 not only those portions of the landings of the 

 various ports that originated on Georges Bank, 

 but adding together also data for two artificial 

 market categories, the limits of which vary from 

 season to season, from year to year, and among 

 different areas of the bank. 



Where we refer to totals we refer, of course, to 

 our best estimate of such values. All such values 

 are subject to a certain amount of error due to 

 limitations in collecting and assembling statistics 

 and to sampling error. 



The values developed in this paper represent 

 landings but not catches because the smallest 

 sizes of haddock are discarded at sea as they lack 

 sufficient marketable value to be brought to port. 



DEVELOPMENT OF DATA 

 Ports of landing 



Haddock are caught in North American waters 

 by fishermen from New England, New York, 

 Canada, Newfoundland, and various European 

 countries. 



Canadian and Newfoundland landings were ex- 

 cluded from this study, as no records could be 

 found to indicate that any of their haddock were 

 caught in the Georges Bank area. McKenzie 

 (1946) has shown that all Canadian haddock 

 landings for the years 1938 to 1940 came from 

 banks to the north and east of Georges Bank. 

 Herrington (unpublished manuscript) lists all 

 Canadian landings for the years 1918 to 1940 as 

 having originated from banks other than Georges. 



European fishermen, mainly interested in cod, 

 frequent the Newfoundland banks and the most 

 easterly of the Nova Scotian banks. Records 

 show that Europeans fished on Georges Bank 

 during early years, but not during the years 

 covered in this summary. 



