west of the Delta were responsible for record 

 production in 1962. 



Of the four major species supporting the 

 Gulf of Mexico bottomfish fishery, the Atlantic 

 croaker was the most important and, on the 

 average, contributed 56 percent of the annual 

 production. Lesser quantities of spot, sand 

 seatrout, and silver seatrout were present in 

 catches throughout every year of the survey. 

 Cutlassfish entered catches seasonally from 

 May through October on the shallow- water 

 grounds, whereas the longspine porgy occurred 

 on the deeper grounds between October and 

 May. At one season or another and in varying 

 degree, a total of at least 177 species may be 

 expected to contribute to northern Gulf bottom- 

 fish landings. 



The fishery's more important trawling 

 grounds were situated nearshore between the 



entrance to Mobile Bay and the Mississippi 

 River Delta. The trawler fleet generally op- 

 erated throughout the north-central Gulf from 

 shore to 7 fathoms between June and No- 

 vember, and in 7 to 30 fathoms from Decem- 

 ber through May. The optimum bottomfish 

 ground (summer-fall) was located inside the 

 8-fathom curve east of the Mississippi River 

 Delta. 



Increased fishing effort was responsible for 

 increased yields west and east of the Missis- 

 sippi River Delta during 1959-63, while bottom- 

 fish population levels remained relatively 

 stable. 



Recommendations are concerned with 

 fuller utilization of the bottomfish resource 

 available to fishermen on the established 

 grounds. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Many persons have contributed to this 

 study- -the processing plant operators who 

 made available their catch records, and the 



fishermen who furnished detailed informa- 

 tion on fishing activities. 



LITERATURE CITED 



BULLIS, H. R., F. J. CAPTIVA, and B. O. 

 KNAKE. 



I960. Trawling gear designed for industrial 

 fish production. Fish Boat Ybk. 5(3): 

 18-21, 91-92. 

 GUNTER, G. 



1945. Studies on marine fishes of Texas. 

 Univ. Tex. Publ. Inst. Mar. Sci. 1(2): 

 1-190. 

 HILDEBRAND, H. H. 



1954. A study of the fauna of the brown 

 shrimp (Penaeus aztecus Ives) grounds 

 in the western Gulf of Mexico. Univ. 

 Tex. Publ. Inst. Mar. Sci. 3(2): 1- 

 366. 

 KLAGES, K. H. W. 



1942. Ecological crop geography. Macmillan 

 Co., New York, 615 p. 

 KUTKUHN, JOSEPH H. 



1962. Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp 

 populations--trends and characteris- 



tics, 1956-59. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., 

 Fish. Bull. 62: 343-402. 

 MILES, R. M. 



1951. An analysis of the "trash fish" of 

 shrimp trawlers operating in Apalachi- 

 cola Bay and the adjacent Gulf of Mexico. 

 Unpublished Thesis, Fla. St. Univ., 

 Tallahassee, Fla., 1-46. 

 THOMPSON, J. R., and W. A. HASKELL. 



I960. From trash to treasure. Petfood Ind. 

 2(12): 10-13. 

 U.S. FISH and WILDLIFE SERVICE. 



1963. Canned fishery products-- 1962 annual 

 summary. Comm. Fish. Statist. 3144: 

 1-17. 

 WOLFF, R. P. 



1963. The potential use of trash fish caught 

 by shrimp trawlers. Univ. Miami. Small 

 Business Study, Inst. Mar. Sci.: 1-34. 



MS. #1456 



18 



