Table 32. --Estimated commercial landings of soft clam in 

 the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States 

 coast 1960-1975. Weights of moats in metric tons. 



The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960. 1965, and 

 1970 did not include recreational catches of invertebrates. 



Live weights are given in parentheses for comparability with 

 ICNAF statistics. 



harvested in the New York Bight area. Soft clam is 

 known to be much more susceptible to the effects of 

 water pollution than hard clam is, thus pollution also 

 could be a cause. Even if the resource recovers in New 

 England it may be difficult to compete against the less 

 costly Maryland industry which permits harvesting with 

 fiydraulic dredges (Merrill and Tubiash 1970). 



Chub Mackerel 



Like several other active pelagic fishes of the high seas, 

 chub mackerel. Scomber japonicus Houttuyn, appears 

 infrequently and erratically in domestic commercial land- 

 ings. Most of the catch is taken in pound nets, and land- 

 ings in New Jersey have been somewhat greater than in 

 New York. The period of greatest landings in both states 

 (up to 600 metric tons in New Jersey) was in the early 

 1940s which appears to lend some credence to the relative 

 accuracy of statistics for the two states. The actual catch 

 probably is much larger than the recorded catch, because 

 this species often is taken with Atlantic mackerel and 

 reported as such. 



In saltwater sport fishing surveys chub mackerel is not 

 listed separately, but is included with Atlantic mackerel. 

 It is assumed that the recreational catch of chub 

 mackerel is not large. The species is not listed in ICNAF 

 catches. 



Frigate Mackerel 



Frigate mackerel, Auxis spp.," has never been a major 

 commercial species in the New York Bight area. It is dis- 



"Probably Auxis thazard (Lacepede) and A. rochei (Risso). 



cussed here because, according to official statistics, it 

 was recorded in commercial fishery landings only for a 

 short period and because the record of landings is 

 remarkably similar for New Jersey and New York. Max- 

 imum reported catches were about 75 metric tons in each 

 state. Almost all the catch was taken in pound nets. 



Frigate mackerel was first recorded in New Jersey land- 

 ings in 1932 and in New York in 1931. The latest catches 

 recorded were for 1951 in New Jersey and 1949 in New 

 York. Catches in each state show three peaks, in the mid- 

 1930s, early 1940s, and late 1940s. The species may have 

 been included with unclassified food fishes prior to the 

 1930s. 



Two possible explanations of the relatively brief ap- 

 pearance of frigate mackerel in New York Bight landings 

 are suggested. Either the species was unusually abun- 

 dant in the period from about 1932 to 1950, so that it 

 spread beyond its usual geographic range, or 

 oceanographic conditions during that period were such 

 that this pelagic oceanic species came closer to shore 

 than usual. Frigate mackerel also were recorded briefly 

 in pound-net landings in Massachusetts and Rhode Is- 

 land at about the same time. Arnold (1951) reported 

 large numbers in the vicinity of Point Judith, R.I. in 

 1949, as well as other warm water species. 



Frigate mackerel has not been listed in saltwater sport 

 fish catches. The species is included in the ICNAF 

 category "Other fish," but landings have not been 

 reported separately. It is assumed that the foreign catch 

 is negligible. The species was not listed by Bigelow and 

 Schroeder (1953) or by Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928), 

 which suggests that it is an infrequent visitor. 



Soup 



Scup, Stenotomus chrysops (Linnaeus), was not men- 

 tioned by Earll (1887) as an important species in the 

 fisheries of New Jersey in the 1880s. However, it was 

 listed by Mather (1887) as important at the two ends and 

 along the south shore of Long Island. Mather noted that 

 scup had decreased in abundance, but by 1880 was in- 

 creasing again. Earll did mention sheepshead, Archosar- 

 gus probatocephalus (Walbaum), a closely related 

 species, as being caught off the coast of New Jersey. This 

 species, once abundant enough off New York to have a 

 bay named after it, now is scarce north of Cape Hat- 

 teras. 



As in New York (McHugh 1972a), scup was the leading 

 species by weight in New Jersey food fish landings for a 

 considerable period. It ranked first by weight from 1948 

 to 1965 inclusive except for 2 yr: 1949, when an unusually 

 large catch of Atlantic mackerel was made (Fig. 28) and 

 mackerel ranked first; and 1956, when scup was less 

 abundant for a period (Fig. 31). The reduction in abun- 

 dance in the mid-1950s may not have been as great as the 

 drop in commercial landings would make it appear. 

 Fishermen may have turned in that period to the higher 

 priced summer flounder, which at that time was tem- 

 porarily abundant. Scup ranked first or second by weight 

 of all food finfishes landed in New Jersey for 23 con- 



33 



