320 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



too, like the fishermen, spread themselves over all the opportunities of the 

 region up to and often beyond the limit of sufficiency. 



Fluctuations in Quantity and Composition of Catch. All fisheries are 

 characterized by fluctuations caused by weather, wind and tide, vertical 

 and horizontal movements of the different kinds of fish in search of food 

 and in response to temperature, light, and saltiness of water and to the 

 instinct to migrate for the purpose of spawning. These and fisherman's luck 

 in finding the fish affect the day-to-day results of fishing. Many fishes 

 perform annual migrations with considerable regularity and most, if not 

 all, species undergo natural fluctuations in abundance in regular or irregular 

 cycles of two to five years, or even up to a quarter-century or more, and a 

 few have shifted their centers of abundance to different regions. The weak- 

 fish or sea trout, now absent from New England, has appeared there in 

 commercial quantity and disappeared several times in the past two cen- 

 turies; the bluefish disappeared suddenly in 1764 and was totally absent 

 from the New England coast until 1830; the scup was abundant from the 

 first arrival of the Colonists until some time after 1642 when it wholly 

 disappeared until about 1794 when it reappeared; " the thimble-eye or 

 chub mackerel has appeared and disappeared several times; the menhaden 

 has shifted southward, and the croaker is now centered more northerly 

 than it was a few years ago; in 1872 the whiting had not been seen in 

 quantity at Cape Cod in many years (in 1945, 78 million pounds of it were 

 produced) ; whether the present large production of rosefish is due to 

 economic demand or whether it is in a wave of abundance after a long 

 period of scarcity, we do not know. These movements and fluctuations affect 

 different species differently or at different times, so that not all are present 

 or absent or abundant or scarce at the same time and place, as will be seen 

 on examination of the historical record of North Carolina species. Table 91, 

 Appendix. It is therefore to be expected that the total yield of fish in 

 quantity and composition will vary much locally and from day to day, 

 less for larger areas from month to month, and still less for very large areas 

 from year to year, the fluctuations being lost in the averages. There do not 

 appear to have been in the historical record any great general biological 

 scarcities of fish; scarcities are always confined to particular species. 



These fluctuations of quantity and composition of catch are, however, 

 one of the most difficult economic characteristics of the fisheries. They cause 

 erratic prices and disappointment when good catches have been made, occa- 

 sional dumpings of the catch in the more remote communities for want of a 

 market, and interfere with the establishment of pubHc familiarity with the 



13. For further details on the long-range comings and goings of various species, see Report of 

 the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, Part I, 1871-72, Sec. IV, Special Arguments for Regulating 

 Sea Fisheries by Law, p. 73-124; also, same Report, Sees. V, VI and XIV; Baird (1889) and 

 Appendix; and Bigelow and Welsh (1925) under the headings of the various species. 



