1940s in New York and until the middle 1950s in New 

 Jersey. The modern fishery began off the south coast of 

 Long Island, N.Y. Stocks of surf clam on the original 

 grounds soon were reduced in abundance, and the fleets 

 began to range more widely in search of new grounds. A 

 large area closed to shellfishing in the apex of New York 

 Bight removed some surf clam stocks from the fishery. A 

 much larger resource was discovered off the New Jersey 

 coast, and from 1949 to 1966 landings in New Jersey in- 

 creased more than hundredfold, from 185 metric tons of 

 meats to nearly 20,000 (Fig. 35). In weight of meats land- 

 ed, this has been the most important food fishery in New 

 Jersey since 1955. 



Following the peak year 1966 surf clam landings in 

 New Jersey have decreased irregularly but sharply. Land- 

 ings in 1972 and 1973 were about half the maximum 

 and landings in 1974 only slightly higher, but in 1975 

 jumped substantially. The evolution of the fishery has 

 been typical of coastal fisheries everywhere. The fleets 

 have ranged south, first off Delaware, then to Maryland 

 and Virginia (Ropes et al. 1972), and have contemplated 

 extending their operations north to the Canadian coast, 

 where plentiful surf clam resources have been reported 

 (Lo Verde 1969). Production was increased by improving 

 the efficiency of operations at sea and by steady ad- 

 ditions of vessels to the fleet. The short-lived rise in land- 

 ings in 1969 and 1970 was attributed to production from 

 a new ground on the Delaware side of Delaware Bay 

 (Lo Verde 1970). New Jersey and New York, which 

 received 99.8''o of the Atlantic coast catch in 1966 (Table 

 39), now receive less than 50%, and surf clam grounds off 

 the two states produce only a small part of the total 

 catch. It appears probable that as new beds are located 

 and exhausted the total catch may begin to fall. Thus, 

 the surf clam resource, like many other coastal fishery 

 resources, eventually could decline to minor impor- 

 tance. How long it would take to reach this stage in the 

 evolution of the fishery will depend upon the magnitude 

 of the total resource, demand for the product, and costs 

 of harvesting and processing. The recently established 

 State-Federal Cooperative Surf Clam Study, if success- 

 ful, may prevent a repetition of the sorry history of so 

 many other domestic coastal fisheries. 



Surf clam is known to occur off the coast from the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence to Cape Hatteras. To the north it is 

 found mostly in shallow waters near shore, although it is 

 distributed only sparsely over Georges Bank (Merrill and 

 Ropes 1969). The depth of greatest abundance increases 

 toward the south. Most surf clam are found at depths 

 between 12 and 43 m, but they have been reported as 

 deep as 128 m. From New York northward a possible al- 

 ternative resource is the smaller Spisula polynyma 

 (Stimpson). South of Cape Hatteras is an even smaller 

 species, Spisula raveneli (Conrad), according to Jacob- 

 son and Old (1966). 



Occupying about the same geographic range, but in 

 deeper water, is another possible alternate, ocean quahog 

 or mahogany clam. Arctica islandica (Linnaeus). A 

 limited fishery for ocean quahog has operated for a num- 

 ber of years off Rhode Island and since 1968 landings 



rSSO 90 1900 10 20 30 «) 50 60 TO 



Figure 3.5. — Annual commercial landings of surf clam in New Jersey 

 1901-1975. 



Table 39. --Estimated commercial landings of surf clam in the north 

 and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. 

 Weights of meats in metric tons. 



Tlie national saltwater angling surveys for 1960. 1965, and 1970 did 

 not include recreational catches of invertebrates. 



Live weights are given in parentheses for comparability with ICNAF 

 statistics. 



have been rising. Landings of this species were first 

 reported in Massachusetts in 1968 and in Connecticut in 

 1969. Ocean quahog is abundant from Georges Bank to 

 the outer continental shelf off Chespeake Bay (Merrill 

 and Ropes 1969). Surf clam is preferred because it is 

 larger and produces a greater yield of meats, and is dis- 

 tributed in somewhat shallower water closer to shore. 

 There also have been problems with dark color and off- 

 flavor of meats of ocean quahog. 



No foreign fleet has been known to harvest surf clam, 

 which was declared by the United States a creature of 

 the continental shelf under the terms of the 1958 Geneva 

 Convention and now is further protected by the Fishery 

 Conservation and Management Act of 1976 (U.S. House 

 of Representatives 1976). 



Bluefin Tuna 



Tuna purse seiners began fishing in New Jersey waters 

 in 1963 (LoVerde 1964). Catches of Atlantic bluefin tuna. 



38 



