set and the toifidng ■wsjrps had been hooked up, the Loran position and 

 tir^e of hook-up ■wars recorded on the fathometer tape. At the end of 

 the tow a second Loran fix vras taken to obtain the end position for 

 the tow. 



During most of the trawling operations (excludinghar!g-ups) the 

 trawl was towed for half an hour^ from the time of hook-ap to the 

 sl-art of haul-back, at a toiling speed of 4-. 5 knots. A total of 42 

 hs,lf-hour tows yte.s made at 30 randomly selected stations on the 

 continental shelf betireen Charleston, South Carolina and Cape 

 Henlopen, Delaware. Locations of these stations are illustrated in 

 Figure 4-« A complete log of 'these operations nay be found in 

 Appendix Be 



LIIIITATIONS OF TRAILING GEAR USED 



The trav/ling gear used to malv"? this survey had certain limitations. 

 The heavy rollers and total weight of the net caused it to hug the 

 bottom to the extent that large numbers of those species normally taken 

 vri-th balloon trav/ls probably escaped capture* In a like mar-ner, the 

 large rollers raised the foot-rope off the bottom and presumablj'- 

 permitted the escapement of some fish— flatfishes especially. Despite 

 these limitations, it is believed that sufficient quantities of .butter- 

 fish, scup, and flatfishes T.-ere caught to provide a fair index of the 

 supply of these species. 



DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 



The catch figures presented in Appendix B are not impressive when 

 compared mth the trawl catches from fishing grounds in the Noi^hwest 

 Atlantic Ocean. They are representative, howaverj of the size of trawl 

 catch which might be expected fran randomly selected stations in south- 

 em coastal Yvaters at this time of the year. It is Imovm that many of 

 the resident species mig-rate north-vvard during the early suEuner months* 



For the purposes of analyzing these catch figures, it was found 

 convenient to divide the area surveyed iTith the otter travd into three 

 depth zones — 10-50 fathoms, 51-100 fathoms, and over 100 fathoms. The 

 productivity of the area, as measured by the otter tvai-fl catches, varied 

 ivith these depth zones. The composition of the catch and relative 

 abundance of each species also varied in a distinct pattern from station 

 to station and v/ith depth. Ovdng to these narked variations in each of 

 the three depth zones, it became desirable to analyze the results by 

 depth zones. 



