HARVESTING THE RESOURCES 



Historically, the small bottom dwelling fish 

 of the Gulf of Mexico have been unutilized 

 because of the absence of a market, but in 

 recent years these fishes have achieved con- 

 siderable importance as the principal raw 

 material of the canned petfood industry. Sev- 

 eral important features make small bottom- 

 fish desirable to the fishing interests. Fish 

 occur in schools, and individuals are fairly 

 uniform in size. These characteristics fa- 

 cilitate mass production methods of catching, 

 handling, and processing. Most of the species 

 undertake only limited seasonal migrations 

 and tend to remain relatively close to shore 

 where they are accessible to fishermen 

 throughout the year. 



FISHING GROUNDS 



The shallow waters of the north- central 

 Gulf of Mexico have recently been among the 

 most productive fishing grounds in the world, 

 both in tonnage caught and variety of species 

 of fish and shellfish present in the catch. 

 Menhaden, shrimp, oysters, crabs, and bottom - 

 fish are caught on the continental shelf and 

 in the estuaries of Louisiana, Mississippi, and 

 Alabama where bottom dwelling and floating 

 organisms furnish an adequate food supply 

 for the commercial species. The fertility of 

 this relatively narrow and well-defined region 

 is probably associated with nutrient salts and 

 organic material contained in the heavy runoff 

 from an area having the highest average annual 

 rainfall in the eastern U.S., and in the large 

 outflow of the Mississippi River. 



Three commercial fisheries of major im- 

 portance depend on the marine resources com- 

 mon to this area. The menhaden fishery, 

 which harvests with purse seines large quan- 

 tities of this herring-like fish (principally in 

 estuaries and on the inner shelf), is by far 

 the most important in tonnage landed. During 

 1959-63, annual recorded landings of men- 

 haden from Louisiana and Mississippi waters 

 averaged more than 400,000 tons. The fishery 

 for shrimp is prosecuted in the estuaries and 

 on the inner- and mid-shelf. During 1959-63, 

 the annual commercial yield of shrimp from 

 the Louisiana and Pensacola-Mississippi River 

 coastal grounds averaged more than 37,000 

 tons, whole weight. Industrial bottomfish are 

 commercially caught on the inner- and mid- 

 continental shelf along 250 nautical miles of 

 coastline near the Mississippi River Delta. 

 The grounds extend seaward from shore to 

 about 30 fathoms and vary in width from 

 3 miles off South Pass, La., to 50 miles south 

 of Dauphin Island, Ala. The bottom area 

 includes about 5,500 square nautical miles. 

 It consists largely of mud and sand and is 

 relatively level, providing excellent trawling 



conditions. The average annual landing of 

 bottomfish during 1959-63 exceeded 41,000 

 tons. 



The north- central Gulf was divided into 

 the areas east and west of the Mississippi 

 River Delta. This boundary passes through 

 an area where the continental shelf is very 

 narrow and relatively little or no fishing 

 is done. Each area was then divided on the 

 basis of seasonal fishing effort into two 

 depth zones, one extending from to 7 fath- 

 oms and the other from 7 to 30 fathoms. 

 The four resulting subareas are defined as 

 follows: 



West Delta-near shore .- - Includes grounds 

 west of South Pass at the Mississippi River 

 Delta extending to a line running due south 

 of Point au Fer, La. (lat. 29° 20' N. and long. 

 91° 29' W.), and from shore to 7 fathoms. 



West Delta-offshore . --Includes grounds 

 west of South Pass to a line running due 

 south of Point au Fer, and located in 7 to 

 30 fathoms. 



East Delta-nearshore . --Includes grounds 

 east of South Pass to a line running due south 

 of the entrance to Perdido Bay, Fla. (lat. 

 30° 16' N. and long. 87° 33' W.), and from 

 shore to 7 fathoms. 



East Delta-offshore . --Includes grounds east 

 of South Pass to a line running due south of 

 Perdido Bay entrance, and in 7 to 30 fathoms. 



SPECIES TAKEN 



The inner- and midshelf waters of the 

 northern Gulf of Mexico are inhabited by 

 many species offish. Gunter (1945) identified 

 53 families and 119 species in an ecological 

 study of the coastal fishes of Texas. Hilde- 

 brand (1954) sampled the bottom fauna in 12 

 to 24 fathoms between Ship Shoal and Southwest 

 Pass, La., during June. Five 3-hour tows 

 yielded bottomfish representing 30 families, 

 which included 48 species. Sixty- seven fam- 

 ilies of fishes including at least 177 species 

 have been identified in the commercial bottom- 

 fish landings off Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala- 

 bama, and northwestern Florida. All species 

 identified in the catch are listed in the Appen- 

 dix. Four species of Sciaenidae contribute sig- 

 nificantly to the overall tonnage--the croaker, 

 spot, sand seatrout, and silver seatrout, which 

 are classified as resident benthic species. Less 

 important species are the sea catfish, long- 

 spine porgy, and cutlassfish or silvereel. 



