LENGTH AND AGE FREQUENCY SAMPLES 



COLLECTED FROM GEORGES BANK 



HADDOCK LANDINGS, 1931-55 



by 



James A. McCann, Fishery Research Biologist, 



and 



Frank A, Dreyer, Statistical Assistant 



Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 



Woods Hole, Massachusetts 



ABSTRACT 



The development of the North Atlantic haddock investigation is briefly reviewed 

 and the methods used to collect length frequency and scale sample data are dis- 

 cussed. These sample data are presented in 125 tables. 



INTRODUCTION 



The haddock fishery of Georges Bank (fig. 1) 

 has been under investigation by biologists of 

 the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries since 

 1931. Early investigators decided that esti- 

 mates of the size and age compositions of the 

 catch must be obtained to provide part of the 

 basic data needed to estimate the vital statis- 

 tics of the population. Consequently, the collec- 

 tion of sample length-frequency and sample 

 scale data from the landings of haddock was 

 begun at Boston, New England's major fishing 

 port, in the fall of 1931.Sampling was extended 

 to include landings in Gloucester and New 

 Bedford, Mass., in 1942, and in 1953 to 

 Provincetown, Mass., Rockland and Pordand, 

 Maine (Rounsefell, 1948 and 1957). 



The purpose of this publication is to present 

 quarterly! sample length-frequency and sam- 

 ple age-length-frequency distributions by 

 1-cm, length intervals for the U.S. commercial 

 haddock landings from Georges Bank for 

 1931-55. 



Since 1956, haddock biostatistics for Georges 

 Bank and other areas have appeared regularly 

 in the Sampling Yearbook published by the 

 International Commission for the Northwest 

 Atlantic Fisheries. 



For studies of haddock on Georges Bank, the year 

 is divided into quarters beginning in February (Schuck, 

 1951). Thus, spring includes February-April, summer 

 is May-July, fall is August -October, and winter is 

 November -January. 



