FISHERIES AND FISHERY RESOURCES 

 OF NEW YORK BIGHT' ' 



J. L. McHUGH^ 



ABSTRACT 



The history of total fish and shellfish landings in the two states (New York and New Jersey) that 

 form the landward boundaries of New York Bight is a history of change. Resource after resource has 

 produced maximum landings, then declined. Total landings dropped from about 315,000 metric tons in 

 1956 to about 23,000 in 1967 and have risen only moderately since that time. The rise and fall of the in- 

 dustrial fisheries, mostly menhaden, was responsible for most of this decline, and this has masked 

 trends in the food fisheries. 



Altogether about 132 species or groups of species of fishes and invertebrates have been reported as 

 landed in New Jersey or New York since 1880. Fifty of these are discussed and illustrated with figures 

 and tables of landings. 



Edible finfish species as a group reached peak landings in 1939 and declined fairly steadily to 

 about one-third that level in the 1970s. Molluscan and crustacean shellfish production reached two 

 peaks, in 1950 and 1966, the second considerably higher than the first. This recovery of shellfish land- 

 ings in 1966 would not have occurred were it not for the rapid development of the surf clam fishery in 

 the 1950s. 



The timing of the declines makes it clear that foreign fishing was not the cause, for foreign fishing 

 probably could not have affected the fisheries of New York Bight before the mid-1960s. Actually, total 

 catches of resources taken only by domestic fishermen have declined more sharply than total domes- 

 tic catches of species shared with foreign fleets. Foreign fishing is but a symptom of the troubles of the 

 domestic fisheries, some of which are imagined. The ills of the domestic fisheries are economic and 

 sociopolitical, and they will not yield easily to scientific solutions. 



INTRODUCTION 



The coasts of New Jersey and New York form the 

 western and northern boundaries of what is commonly 

 known as New York Bight. The Bight has been defined as 

 those coastal waters extending from Montauk Point, 

 Long Island, N.Y. to Cape May, N.J. and out to the edge 

 of the continental shelf (Figs. 1. 2). These waters have 

 been an important fishing ground since the early days of 

 the settlement of North America, and they still produce 

 important quantities of fish and shellfish. In 1975 

 (National Marine Fisheries Service 1976) the two states 

 produced a total marine commercial catch of about 

 82,000 metric tons with a landed value of $48.0 million. 

 As will be evident later, this is considerably less than 

 maximum historic landings but it is still substantial. To 



'Parts of the analysis on which this paper is based were made under 

 support of a fellowship with the Woodrow Wilson International Center lor 

 Scholars, Washington, D.C-, .July-August 1971. The work was completed 

 and the paper written under support from the Marine Ecosystems Analy- 

 sis Program (MESA) ol the National Marine Fisheries Service. National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Com- 

 merce. 



The historical review of marine fisheries in New York State is a result 

 of research sponsored by the New York Sea Grant Institute under a grant 

 from the Office of Sea Grant. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad- 

 ministration. U.S. Department of Commerce. 



■Contribution (XK) of the Marine Sciences Research Center of the State 

 University of New York, Stony Brook. N.Y. 



Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, 

 Stony Brook, NY 11794. 



some extent the decline in commercial landings has been 

 offset by an increase in the catch by saltwater sport 

 fishermen. New Jersey ranked ninth by weight and 

 fifteenth by value among the coastal states in commer- 

 cial marine fishery landings in 197.5, the latest year for 

 which such figures are available; New York ranked 

 seventeenth by weight but eleventh by value. Together, 

 the two states accounted for about 4'~c of total U.S. com- 

 mercial landings by weight and about 4.7^c in landed 

 value. There is also considerable foreign fishing and some 

 domestic fishing in the area outside the 12-mile zone of 

 domestic fishery jurisdiction. The foreign catch in sub- 

 areas 5 and 6 of the International Commission for the 

 Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF) was nearly 

 800,000 metric tons in 1974, but in 1972 was more than a 

 million metric tons. The recreational catch in the New 

 York Bight area cannot be determined exactly, but it is 

 probably about 90,000 metric tons, not including inver- 

 tebrates. Reported recreational catches of finfishes in 

 1970, the latest year for which estimates are available, 

 were about 121,300 metric tons for the north Atlantic 

 region (Maine to New York inclusive) and 111,700 met- 

 ric tons for the middle Atlantic region (New Jersey to 

 North Carolina inclusive). 



The international fisheries are now under a reasonable 

 degree of control. For example, ICNAF established 

 quotas for subareas 5 and 6 in 1976 totalling 815,000 met- 

 ric tons for 12 species or groups of species, but also placed 

 a stringent additional constraint by setting a total 

 allowable catch, all species combined, of 6.50,000 metric 



