7500 



74 30 



T'Cod 



73 30 



7300 



72 30 



72 00 



Figure 2. — New York Bight showing most place names mentioned in the text. Other place names are in Figure 1. 



York Bight presently being carried out by the Marine 

 Ecosystems Analysis program (MESA) of the National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Commerce. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 



Commercial fishery landings in the New York Bight 

 area are available back to 1880. An almost unbroken 

 series of annual commercial landings is available for New 

 Jersey and New York since 1929, but records prior to that 

 time were intermittent. These have been published, 

 usually about 2 yr in arrears, by the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service and its predecessor agencies. New Jer- 

 sey landings include catches from Delaware Bay and 

 other coastal bays and lagoons. New York landings in- 



clude catches from Long Island Sound and the impor- 

 tant bays of the eastern end and south shore of Long Is- 

 land. These waters are not included within the definition 

 of New York Bight as far as the present MESA studies 

 are concerned, but they do not now account for a very 

 large part of total commercial landings in either state. 

 New York landings from 1954 to 1969 inclusive were 

 reported by statistical areas which apparently allow 

 separation of ocean catches from those made in shel- 

 tered inshore waters, but it is not clear whether landings 

 reported from a statistical area represent catches made 

 exclusively in those waters or landings at ports within the 

 area. Although documentary proof does not exist, it is 

 commonly believed that commercial fishery landings are 

 larger than official records show. This is not unique to 

 the New York Bight area. It probably is a common 



