Table 35. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of summer 

 flounder in the north and middle Atlantic regions of the United 

 States coast for the period in which recreational or foreign catch 

 estinates are available. Weights in metric tons. 



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

 give data for individual states. New Yor)c was included with the New 

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



The 1960 recreational catch was all flounders combined. 

 Foreign catches for 1975 are provisional. The total ICHAF 1976 

 quota for all flounders except yallowtail in subareas 5 and 6 was 

 20,000 metric tons. 



Figures for 1975 in parentheses assume that unavailable landings in 

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

 Landings in N.C. include other flounder species. 

 - An unreported catch is possible. 



trawling within 2 miles of the New Jersey coast may have 

 helped to keep the catch down. 



The reported recreational catch of winter flounder is 

 much larger than the commercial catch in the mid-At- 

 lantic region (Table 36), and about equal to the domes- 

 tic commercial catch in the north Atlantic region. Win- 

 ter and summer flounders are among the most impor- 

 tant and sought-after recreational species in the shallow 

 coastal waters of New York and New Jersey. 



Foreign catches of winter flounder, except in 1969, 

 have been relatively small (Table 36). 



Yellowtail flounder. — The yellowtail flounder fishery 

 of the north and middle Atlantic regions went through a 

 wide fluctuation in landings, from a peak in the early 

 1940s to a low in the 19.50s, and a subsequent rise to inter- 

 mediate levels in the 1960s and early 1970s. These fluc- 

 tuations are similar to variations in New York landings 

 (McHugh 1972a). The relation between these fluc- 

 tuations in catch and abundance of yellowtail flounder 

 on the continental shelf was confirmed by Colton (1972). 

 The species was particularly abundant off New York and 

 New Jersey in the late 1960s, but Colton concluded that 

 this was related to greater abundance and not to a shift 

 in geographic range. Prior to the middle 1930s, yellow- 

 tail was regarded as a scrap fish (U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service 1945), and landings were small and prices low. 

 The fishery began when winter flounder catches off New 

 York and farther north declined. 



According to Lux (1963) there are three stocks of yel- 



lowtail, the most southerly of which occupies the 

 southern New England region. The catch in this region, 

 which for ICNAF regulatory purposes includes the waters 

 over the continental shelf west and south of long. 69°W, 

 has been controlled by quota since 1971. The total 

 allowable catch in ICNAF subareas 5 and 6 for 1976 has 

 been set at 20,000 metric tons. 



Royce et al. (1959) concluded that the sharp decline in 

 landings of yellowtail from the southern New England 

 stock from the early 1940s to the middle 1950s was not 

 caused by overfishing, but by a shift in the location of the 

 stock. Landings in New York dropped to very low levels 

 (McHugh 1972a, fig. 22) then recovered in the 1960s. A 

 similar cycle occurred in New Jersey, but landings there 

 were much smaller, and the decline is not clearly evident 

 in Figure 33. The difference in landings between the two 

 states is not so much a reflection of differences in the size 

 of the trawler fleets as an indication that Long Island is 

 about the southern limit of the range of this species. 

 Usually, the numbers of vessels in the New Jersey trawl 

 fleet have not been much different from those in the New 

 York fleet. The magnitude of landings in the two states 

 and the remarkable decline and subsequent rise in 

 catches are illustrated in Table 37. The recent high levels 

 of landings in New Jersey may indicate another south- 

 ward shift, although it is possible that a distinct stock in- 

 habits waters off southern New Jersey. Grosslein et al. 

 (1973, see footnote 7) suggested that a fourth stock might 

 exist in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Landings of yellow- 

 tail flounder dropped abruptly in 1974 and 1975 in both 



Table 36. — Estimated commercial and recreational catches of winter 

 flounder 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 I960, 1965, euid 1970 did 

 not give data by individual states. New YorV was included with the 

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



The 1960 recreational catch was all flounders cconbined. 



Foreign catches for 1975 are provisional. The total ICNAF 1976 

 quota for all flounders except yellowtail in subareas 5 and 6 was 

 20.000 metric tons. 



Figures for 1975 in parentheses assume that unavailable landings in 

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



36 



