are used to encircle the school of lish and then the bottom of the 

 net is closed, forming a pocket which traps the fish. 



Along some of Rhode Island's coastline, haul seines are used to 

 catch migratory species such as summer flounder, striped bass, and 

 bluefish. Harpoons are used exclusively in the commercial capture 

 of swordfish. Gill nets are infrequently used in the summer and 

 fall for the capture of bluefish. Most of the common eels are cap- 

 tured by eel pots. Lastly, there are a few commercial fishermen who 

 still use hand lines and trawls with hooks for codfish and pollock. 



Sport fishermen, who outnumber the commercial fishermen about 

 100 to 1 in Rhode Island, are interested chiefly in the pursuit of 

 five major species. They are striped bass, bluefish, tautog, flounder 

 and weakfish. These five species, with the exception of flounder, 

 are of minor importance to the commercial fishermen. Table 1 

 shows that the landings of commercial fishermen consisted mainly 

 of butterfish, menhaden, herring, scup, cod, flounder and trash 

 fish during the past ten years. 



This present study demonstrates the presence of 40 ''new" 

 species of fish present in Rhode Island waters since the publication 

 of Tracy's "Annotated List of Fishes of Rhode Island," in 1910. 

 As can be seen from Table 2, the majority of these species are 

 southern varieties, with a few exceptions. The appearance of these 

 warm water species can be attributed to one major factor, which is 

 an increase in the water temperature of the coastal areas of Rhode 

 Island since 1910. Taylor, Bigelow and Graham (1957) cite the fol- 



TABLE 3 



Fresh Water Fish Sometimes Found in Brackish Water of Coastal Rivers of 



Rhode Island 



Scientific name Common name 



Salmo trutta Brown trout 



Salvelinus fontinalis Brook trout 



Ameiurus nebulosis Brown bullhead 



Esox niger Chain pickerel 



Perca flavescens Yellow perch 



Micropterus salmoidcs Largemouth black bass 



85 



