Figure 15.— Annual commercial landings of American shad in New 

 Jersey 1880-1975. 



catches probably was the result of overfishing during the 

 war, as had been concluded for the New York fishery 

 (Burdick 1954). But continued declines in catches of 

 shad in New York waters apparently had economic 

 rather than biological causes and this probably also was 

 true for New Jersey. The condition of the shad resource of 

 the Hudson River and the circumstances leading to the 

 continued decline of the fishery in New York have been 

 examined in detail by Medeiros (1975). In the Delaware 

 Bay area, as in the Hudson River, fishermen say that 

 shad prices reach their peak in the Philadelphia market 

 before the Delaware River run begins. Low prices often 

 force fishermen to stop fishing before the run hits its peak 

 (Eugene LoVerde pers. commun.). 



American shad has become a popular sport fish. 

 Reported catches are about as large as commercial 



Table 18. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of American 

 shad in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the united States 

 coast 1960-1975. Weights in metric tons. 



The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did 

 not give data by individual states. New Yorlt was included with the 

 New England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic states 



Recreational catches of shad were not recorded in 1960. 



In 1973 a foreign catch of 308 metric tons of American shad was 

 reported in subdivision 5ze. No other foreign catches have been 

 reported, but incidental catches are probable. 



Shad landings for N.Y. are incomplete after 1972. It was assumed 

 that about 40 metric tons were landed in each of the last three years. 



Figures for 1975 in parentheses assume that unavailable landings in 

 N.H,, Conn., and Del. equal the average of recent years. 



catches (Table 18). Commercial catches show substan- 

 tial declines since 1960, but sport catch estimates are less 

 revealing. Estimates for shad were not given in the 1960 

 sport fishing survey. Estimates for 1965 and 1970 show an 

 increase in shad catches in the middle Atlantic region 

 and a drop in the North Atlantic. But the combined fig- 

 ures suggest a relatively stable sport catch, which may 

 mean that recreational fishermen are taking an increas- 

 ing share of the total shad catch. Present concern about 

 PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the Hudson River 

 will affect recreational and commercial fisheries. 



A foreign shad catch of 308 metric tons was reported in 

 division 5Ze in 1973. Incidental catches are occasionally 

 made by domestic trawlers operating close to shore. 



Weakfish 



Cynoscion regalis (Bloch and Schneider) was a popular 

 food fish in the early fishery. In the 1880s weakfish was 

 taken in Upper New York Bay in fykes and gill nets, and 

 was one of the principal species from May to November 

 along the northern New Jersey seacoast and in Delaware 

 Bay (Earll 1887). In New York waters weakfish was an 

 important recreational as well as a commercial species in 

 Long Island Sound (Mather 1887). At the eastern end of 

 Long Island weakfish was said to be more abundant in 

 the 1880s than the 1870s. It also was an important sport 

 and commercial species along the south shore and at the 

 western end of Long Island. Commercial landings in New 

 Jersey apparently remained relatively high for more than 

 30 yr, beginrting about 1897. The trend in commercial 

 catches has been downward since about 1921 (Fig. 16), 

 but the catch has been highly variable, as is characteris- 

 tic of most fishes of coastal waters, and the three major 

 dips in New Jersey landings, in 1926, 1933, and 1940, 

 were followed rather quickly by major recoveries, al- 

 though the general trend was downward. Perlmutter 

 (1959) found that in the period 1930-49 weakfish on the 

 average was the second most important food fish in com- 

 mercial catches in the area from New York to Virginia. 

 McHugh and Bailey (1957) showed that, over the period 

 1929 to 1946 inclusive, weakfish was more than three 

 times as abundant in Virginia waters in 1936 as in 1933 

 and 1940, and that by 1946 abundance was less than one- 

 seventh of the peak year 1936. 



For nearly two decades no substantial recovery in 

 abundance followed the low year 1950. In 1964 (LoVerde 

 1965) large numbers of young weakfish appeared off the 

 southern New -lersey coast, and small weakfish, mostly 

 too small to market, were abundant for the next few 

 years. In 1969, this strong year class or year classes began 

 to appear in the fishery, and commercial and 

 recreational catches have been increasing more or less 

 steadily in New Jersey and New York waters, as they 

 have been in the Middle Atlantic Bight generally. Weak- 

 fish are said to have returned in abundance to Delaware 

 Bay about 3 yr before abundance increased along the 

 ocean coast of New Jersey (Paul Hamer pers. commun.), 

 but this is reflected neither in commercial landings in 



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