Temperature is a key environmental factor governing the distribution and 

 migration of adult silver hake. As the water warms during the spring they 

 move shoreward from their deep water overwintering grounds to the 20-80 m 

 depth range. The sexually mature fish spawn along the southeastern slopes of 

 Georges Bank, between Cape Cod and Grand Manan Island, around Nantucket Shoals 

 and south of Martha's Vineyard, and in the Mid-Atlantic south to Cape Hatteras 

 (Anderson 1982). The spawning season extends from June through August, and 

 females are capable of releasing eggs three times during the season, thus 

 allowing them to spawn over such a large area (Sauskan and Serebryakov 

 1968). Pelagic eggs and larvae drift with the prevailing currents 

 southwesterly off southern New England and have been collected in dense 

 concentrations between Nantucket Shoals and Hudson Canyon. This suggests that 

 the Middle Atlantic Bight is a significant spawning and nursery area for 

 silver hake. Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) suggested that juveniles remain in 

 deep water for one year before moving inshore, but based on NMFS surveys in 

 the Mid-Atlantic it appears as though juveniles are present inshore year 

 round. These fish reach sexual maturity at approximately age 2 and begin to 

 spawn at ages 3 and 4. Silver hake growth demonstrates sexual dimorphism, 

 with females living longer and growing faster than males (Anderson 1982). 

 Adult silver hake are active swimmers and feed voraciously on a variety of 

 crustaceans, squid and fish including herring, mackerel, and young of their 

 own species, while juveniles prey on shrimp and euphausiids. They, in turn, 

 are preyed upon by pollock, flounders, cod, and mackerel (Anderson 1982). 



NMFS data analyses indicate that silver hake stocks are slowly rebuilding 

 and that there is harvestable surplus with a potential for expansion of the 

 fishery (Anderson et al. 1980). 



Ill 



