Figure 28. — Annual commercial landings of Atlantic mackerel in 

 New Jersey 1889-1975. 



of otter trawls and pound nets licensed in both states, 

 reflect an increase in abundance of mackerel, as pointed 

 out by Edwards (1968). Taylor et al. (1957) concluded 

 that temperature was a major factor governing fluc- 

 tuations in mackerel landings, but their argument is not 

 very convincing. The domestic commercial fishery for 

 mackerel is now relatively unimportant (Table 30) 

 because demand is relatively poor. Despite the greater 

 popularity of Atlantic mackerel as a food fish a century 

 ago it was not mentioned by Earll (1887) or Mather 

 (1887) as taken in the New York Bight area in the 1880s. 

 New Jersey and New York combined presently receive 

 10-20'"c of total domestic commercial landings. 



As would be expected from the known geographic dis- 

 tribution of Atlantic mackerel, sport catches are larger in 

 the north Atlantic region (Table 30). The recent in- 

 crease in abundance is reflected in recreational catches 



Table 30. --Estimated commercial and recreational catches of Atlantic 

 mackerel in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United States 

 coast for the period in which recreational or foreign catch estimates 

 are available. Weights in metric tons. 



The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960, 1965, and 1970 did not 

 give data by individual states. New York was included with the New 

 England states and New Jersey with the other middle Atlantic states. 



Foreign catches for 1975 are provisional. The total ICNAF 1976 



quota for Atlantic mackerel in subareas 5 and 6 was 254,000 metric tons. 



Figures for 1975 in oarentheses assume that unavailable landings in 

 N.H., Conn., and Del, equal the average of recent years. 



in 1970, especially in the middle Atlantic region. Atlan- 

 tic mackerel is important seasonally in certain ocean 

 sport fisheries in New York Bight (Buchanan 1972). This 

 increased resource now is being exploited very heavily, 

 mostly by foreign fleets, and according to Grosslein et al. 

 (1973, see footnote 7) may be overfished. 



Hard Clam 



Trends in hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria (Lin- 

 naeus), landings in New Jersey have been similar in their 

 major features to those in New York. 



Hard clam was an important resource in most areas 

 around the coasts of Long Island in the 1880s (Mather 

 1887) but apparently not in New Jersey, because the 

 species was not mentioned by Earll (1887). Reported land- 

 ings in both states were relatively high in the last two 

 decades of the 19th century, dropped sharply and stayed 

 relatively low until the 1930s, rose to maxima in the late 

 1940s and early 1950s, dropped sharply again, and sub- 

 sequently rose in the 1960s (Fig. 29). In New Jersey the 

 recent rise in landings reached a peak in 1967 and 

 catches have been dropping since. In New York, landings 

 began to drop after 1971, but 1975 was a record year. Ex- 

 perienced clam diggers on Great South Bay believe that 

 clam abundance has decreased and that the resource is 

 already overharvested. Total catches in New York have 

 been holding up and were slightly higher in 1975 than in 

 1971, mainly because numbers of clammers have in- 

 creased substantially (Table 31). In Rhode Island, once a 

 major producer of hard clam, landings have declined to 

 less than 20*^7 of the maximum harvest of about 5 mil- 

 lion pounds (2, .300 metric tons) in 19.55. 



The sharp decline in New Jersey hard clam landings in 

 the 1950s was caused at least in part by closing of cer- 

 tain polluted shellfish areas. The problem culminated in 

 an outbreak of hepatitis in 1961, which affected the shell- 

 fish industry seriously through loss of public confidence 

 (Dewling et al. 1972). The subsequent rise in the middle 

 and late 1960s has been attributed to an improvement in 

 public confidence and hence demand, increased abun- 

 dance in some areas, depuration, and opening of some 

 grounds previously closed by pollution. 



Most hard clam production in New Jersey comes from 



1680 90 1900 10 



Figure 29.— Annual commercial landings of hard clam in New Jersey 



1880-1975. 



31 



