CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 1 



Description of facilities and methods 2 



Fishing vessels, gear, and harvesting operations 2 



Catch-processing methods 3 



General 3 



Canning 3 



Reduction to fish meal 3 



Freezing 3 



Harvesting the resources 4 



Fishing grounds 4 



Species taken 4 



Production 5 



Fishing effort and landings, 1959-63 5 



Sources of data and methods of compilation 5 



Size and distribution of catch and effort 6, 



Geographical distribution of effort 9 



Composition of landings 10 



Trends in population size 14 



Recommendations 17 



Summary. 17 



Acknowledgments 18 



Literature cited 18 



Appendix 19 



FIGURES 



1 Fishing grounds of the industrial bottomfish fishery in the north-central Gulf of Mexico. 

 Heavy striped lines indicate limits of the West Delta and East Delta fishing areas 2 



2 Annual production by the industrial bottomfish fishery in the north-central Gulf of 



Mexico, 1952-63 5 



3 Effort expenditure and total commercial landings by industrial bottomfish trawlers 

 operating in the north-central Gulf of Mexico, 1959-63 6 



4 Effort expenditure and commercial bottomfish landings by month, year, and subarea in 



the north-central Gulf of Mexico, 1959-63 8 



5 Distribution of fishing effort in the industrial bottomfish fishery of the northern Gulf of 

 Mexico during winter and spring, 1959-63 11 



6 Distribution of fishing effort in the industrial bottomfish fishery of the northern Gulf of 

 Mexico during summer and fall, 1959-63 11 



7 Average catch of bottomfish per hour of trawling along the north-central Coast of the 



Gulf of Mexico, 1959-63 15 



8 Relations between available bottomfish population, landings, and fishing effort in the 

 north-central Gulf of Mexico, 1959-63 16 



TABLES 



1 Industrial bottomfish landings from the north-central Gulf of Mexico, 1959-63 7 



2 Fishing effort expended by industrial bottomfish trawlers in the north-central Gulf of 

 Mexico, 1959-63 7 



3 Industrial bottomfish landings by trawlers operating in the north-central Gulf of 



Mexico, 1959-63 9 



4 Effort expended by the commercial bottomfish fleet operating in the north-central 



Gulf of Mexico, 1959-63 . 10 



5 Species composition of industrial bottomfish landings from the north- central Gulf of 

 Mexico, 1959-63 12 



