the catch is taken in spring in pound nets, as herring are 

 returning toward Georges Bank from wintering grounds 

 south of New Jersey. In 1967 fishermen in New Jersey 

 were experimenting with midwater trawls to catch this 

 species (Lo Verde 1968), and it was anticipated that short- 

 ages of menhaden and searobins would stimulate 

 development of a herring fishery. Apparently these at- 

 tempts were not successful. There was no sharp increase 

 in herring landings in New Jersey in the late 1960s, as 

 there was in New York in 1966. 



Except for the large 1966 landings in New York, which 

 reached nearly 3,000 metric tons, the Atlantic herring 

 fishery there was much smaller than in New Jersey. At- 

 lantic herring have been used in New York to make 

 pickled herring for human consumption, but the local 

 processor has had difficulty recently in obtaining raw 

 material. 



According to Grosslein et al. (1973, see footnote 7) the 

 Soviet Union began the offshore herring fishery in 1961, 

 attracted by two strong year classes produced in 1960 and 

 1961. Poland and other countries entered the fishery in 

 1966 and later, and landings reached a peak of 373,000 

 tons in 1968, then declined (Table 4). The stock declined 

 sharply from 1964 to 1969. Catch quotas were first im- 

 posed in 1972. The total allowable catch for 1976 is 69,000 

 metric tons. Total biomass in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 

 combined in 1975 was estimated at 374,000 metric tons 

 (Hennemuth 1975)," a considerable drop from the es- 

 timate of 4 billion pounds (1.8 million metric tons) in the 

 period 1963-65 (Edwards 1975, see footnote 10). 



Table 4. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of Atlantic 

 herring in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States 

 coast for the period in which recreational or foreign catch estimates 

 are available. Weights in metric tons. 



The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not 

 give data by individual states. New YorX was included with the New 

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



Foreign fleets caught an additional 72,330 metric tons of Atlantic 

 herring in 196S from Division 5Z which cannot be assigned to 5Ze 

 or 5Zw. 



Foreign catches for 1975 are provisional. The total ICNAF 1976 

 quota for Atlantic herring in subareas 5 and 6 was 67,000 metric tons. 



Figures for 1975 in parentheses assume that unavailable landings in 

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



- An unreported catch is possible. 



Shrimps 



New York and New Jersey have had small shrimp 

 fisheries, but both appear to have collapsed. In New 

 York, landings of shrimp were reported for the period 

 1921 to 1940 inclusive, with a maximum of about 72 met- 

 ric tons in 1931. In New Jersey the peak year on record 

 was 1929, with a reported catch of about 203 metric tons. 

 No landings were reported in New Jersey from 1966 to 

 1971 inclusive, but small amounts were recorded in 1972 

 and 1973. In New York no landings were listed from 1942 

 to 1971 inclusive, but in 1972 a total catch of about 11 

 metric tons was reported. According to LoVerde (pers. 

 commun.) these landings were grass shrimp, 

 Palaemonetes pugio Holthuis or P. vulgaris (Say), which 

 are used as bait by sport fishermen. Recorded commer- 

 cial landings probably do not reflect the total catch. 



New York Bight lies outside the commercially viable 

 ranges of the two important Atlantic coast shrimp 

 resources used as human food. The commercial shrimp of 

 the Gulf of Maine, Pandalus borealis KrcSyer, apparently 

 does not come south of Marthas Vineyard. Two of the 

 three commercial species of Penaeus, P. aztecus Ives, 

 brown shrimp, and P. setiferus (Linnaeus), white 



shrimp, have been recorded as far north as 

 Massachusetts and Fire Island, N.Y. respectively (Wil- 

 liams 1974), but have not supported commercial fisheries 

 north of North Carolina. Another shrimp of potential 

 commercial importance off New York and New Jersey is 

 Dichelopandalus leptoceras (Smith), which occurs in 

 Long Island Sound as well as on the outer continental 

 shelf (Wigley 1960). 



SEMI-INDUSTRIAL FISHERIES 



Some species are used as industrial and human food 

 resources, as alewives and Atlantic herring sometimes 

 have been. Quantities allocated to either purpose vary 

 considerably, depending upon the market, availability of 

 other food and industrial species, and other con- 

 siderations. Red hake and silver hake are examples. 

 Among the invertebrates, squids are used partially for in- 

 dustrial purposes, although industrial use of squids is for 

 bait rather than fish meal or animal food. Clams often 

 are used as bait also, but the sport fisherman sometimes 

 harvests his own, and this part of the catch does not enter 

 commercial channels. 



"Hennemuth. R. C. 1975. Fisheries and renewable resources of the 

 northwest Atlantic shelf. Paper presented at .Symposium on Effects of 

 Enerjjy-Related Activities on the Atlantic Continental Shelf, Brook- 

 haven National Laboratory, November 197.5. 10 ms p. 



Red Hake and White Hake 



Red hake (also called squirrel hake or ling), Urophycis 

 chuss (Walbaum), is somewhat similar in its dis- 



