92 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



for each, while over broad areas, is strictly limited to given boundaries. For 

 instance, the South American species never appear in the northern waters, 

 the Gulf species never leave the Gulf, and the three Atlantic species remain 

 in the Atlantic limited in their southern range by the east coast of Florida. 

 Hildebrand (19 19) ascribed to B. aureus a range as far north as Beaufort 

 but later (1941) corrected this error by naming as smithi the species form- 

 erly identified as aureus. 



B. patronus, closely related to B. tyrannus of the Atlantic, ranges from 

 Tampa, Florida, to Brazos Santiago, Texas. B. gunteri ranges from Grand 

 Isle, Louisiana, to the mouth of the Rio Grande. B. smith! ranges from Indian 

 River City, Florida, to Beaufort, North Carolina, while B. brevicaudata is 

 known only locally at Noank, Connecticut. B. tyrannus ranges from Florida 

 to Nova Scotia. 



While specifically different, tyrannus of the Atlantic and patronus of the 

 Gulf are closely paired as are smithi of the Atlantic and gunteri of the Gulf. 

 The ranges of these two pairs are believed by Hildebrand (1948) to have 

 been at one time continuous but were made discontinuous when the last water 

 passage across Florida between the Atlantic and the Gulf was closed. Passage 

 around the peninsula is prevented by unsuitable conditions, and no menhaden 

 of any species are found in the waters of southern Florida. Before this isola- 

 tion of the two pairs occurred, tyrannus and patronus were probably iden- 

 tical, as were smithi and gunteri: Local conditions seem to have produced 

 species differentiation (Hildebrand, 1948). 



Of the Atlantic species, B. tyrannus only is of commercial significance; 

 brevicaudata appears only at Noank, Connecticut; and smithi, according to 

 Hildebrand, is not known to school. There are apparently exceptions to this 

 conclusion of Hildebrand, for Harrison (1931) reports that while they are 

 seldom seen in large schools, considerable quantities of the species were taken 

 in the Beaufort area in 1929. 



Of the five North Amercan species, tyrannus is the most important com- 

 mercially, over 73 per cent of the 1948 catch of 1,007,888,840 pounds being 

 taken in the waters of North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, and 

 New York and consisting of B. tyrannus. A part of the South Carolina and 

 Florida catch also consisted of B. tyrannus, but the lumped figures do not 

 permit of a breakdown. Except where otherwise noted, from this point on, 

 the present study is concerned only with the species of greatest industrial 

 importance, B. tyrannus. 



COMMON NAMES 



Brevoortia tyrannus probably has more common names than any other 

 fish; and although it is universally known as the menhaden, the local names 

 remain familiar and almost affectionate appellations. Perhaps regional and 



