REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



George A. Rounsefell 



Fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico continue to expand The record 1959 catch 



of fish and shellfish from Gulf waters, which exceeded a billion pounds 

 (1,155,000,000) for the first time, was surpassed in I960 by some 111 mil- 

 lion pounds or about 10 percent. While the catch in other United States areas 

 decreased by 5. 1 percent, the Gulf catch increased by 9o 7 percent. Although 

 the size of the increase was due in large measure to a record catch of men- 

 haden (841 million pounds), the shrimp catch also rose. Texas, Louisiana, 

 and Florida ranked among the top six states in value of I960 landings. 



Research highlights of the past year Completed analyses of 4 years (1956- 



1959) of detadled observations on catches of shrimp and fishing effort through- 

 out the Gulf show that populations of all three major species, brown, pink, 

 and white, undergo two periods of heightened spawning activity and thus pro- 

 duce two definable broods of young shrimp each year. There is good evidence 

 that hurricanes, sweeping high turbulent waters over the estuaries, can cause 

 decreased survived of a brood of young shrimp. Because fishermen in the high- 

 seas fishery (especially on the Campeche Banks) cull the smaller sizes of 

 shrimp from their catches, it will be difficult to obtain reliable estimates of 

 relative abundance of stocks on these far banks until we can secure unculled 

 samples of the catches. 



Relatively high recoveries on the Sanibel fishing grounds of juvenile 

 pink shrimp stained and released in Pine Island Sound, coupled with no recov- 

 eries on the Tortugas grounds, indicate that shrimp taken in the Sanibel and 

 Tortugas fisheries may depend on different nursery areas. More exact defin- 

 ition of the boundary must await future releases in the area between Pine Island 

 Sound and Shark River. 



Larval stages of the seabob, Xiphopeneus kr<^yeri, have been iden- 

 tified and described for a forthcoming publication. 



The numbers of postlarval shrimp entering Galveston Bay during 

 March and April fell from 582 per sample (17 samples) in I960 to 22 per sam- 

 ple (15 samples)in the same period of I96I. Associated hydrographic data are 

 being analyzed for an answer to this sharp fall in numbers. 



Preliminary studies of industrial-type fishes off the east coast of 

 Texas over a 9-month period show that the most abundant species by both num- 

 ber and weight was the longspine porgy, Stenotomus caprinus. The second 

 naost abundcuit by weight was the lizardfish, Synodus foetens, followed by the 

 Atlantic croaker, Micropogon undulatus. This contrasts with the findings of 

 a similar study in the Mississippi Sound area in which the leading species was 

 shown to be the Atlantic croEiker. 



