southern shore of eastern Long Island. Ex- 

 cellent catches were made throughout the 

 month as these fish moved westward off the 

 Long Island coast. The last landing, made on 

 October 31, ended the longest seasonfor which 

 we have records. 



The total purse seine catch was 307,000 

 tons, the same as in 1961. If unusually large 

 catches had not been made in late May, June, 

 and again in October, the season would have 

 been the poorest in several decades. June 

 ranked first in percentage of the season's 

 catch (28 percent), followed by October (21 

 percent). May (19 percent), July (14 percent), 

 Septennber (9 percent), and August (9 percent). 



North Atlantic Area 



were unloaded either at Amagansett or into 

 a special carrier vessel in Narragansett Bay 

 and transported to the Amagansett plant. 



Fishing by Gloucester vessels began June 8 

 and ended August 25. Until the second week in 

 July all fishing was done in Massachusetts 

 Bay between Revere Beach and Nantasket. The 

 boats fished in lower Cape Cod Bay for about 

 1 week in mid- July and thenreturned to Massa- 

 chusetts Bay, where they continued fishing 

 until the end of the season. 



The catch in the North Atlantic Area was 

 79,000 tons, 24,000 tons more than in 1961. 

 June ranked first in percentage of catch (26 

 percent), followed by October (24 percent), 

 July (20 percent), August (14 percent), Sep- 

 tember (13 percent), and May (3 percent). 



The purse seine fleet consisted of 20 

 vessels-- 10 from Amagansett, N.Y., 6 from 

 Point Judith, R.I., and 4 from Gloucester, 

 Mass. 



One vessel from Amagansett landed fish on 

 May 26, but the entire fleet did not begin 

 fishing until May 28. Although some landings 

 were made in Nantucket and Long Island Sounds, 

 until the middle of July most of the catches 

 were nnade off the southern shore of western 

 Long Island from Jones Beach to Fire Island. 

 Throughout this period catches were large. 

 From the middle of July until early October, 

 fish were scarce in all localities, and the 

 vessels ranged fronn western Long Island 

 Sound and the southern shore of western Long 

 Island to Nantucket Sound and Cape Cod Bay. 

 Large schools of migrating fish appeared off 

 the southern shore of Long Island during the 

 second week of October and remained most of 

 the month. Aided by favorable weather, the 

 Amagansett fleet naade the largest October 

 catch on record. Fishing ended October 26. 



The first catches by Point Judith vessels 

 were made May 27 in Narragansett Bay, and 

 the last catches September 17. Fish disap- 

 peared from that locality in mid- June, and 

 the boats moved to Nantucket Sound, where 

 they remained until fish disappeared at the end 

 of the month. The vessels returned to Nar- 

 ragansett Bay in July and, except for scattered 

 catches in Nantucket and Long Island Sounds, 

 remained there until fishing ended. After the 

 middle of July, however, only three vessels 

 continued fishing, and catches were small. The 

 Point Judith plant was closed by civil ordi- 

 nance on July 12 because of air pollution. It 

 reopened July 30, but processed liquid fish 

 only for the remainder of the season. After 

 July 12, catches not landed at Point Judith 



North Carolina Fall Fishery 



The season was nnarked by the late arrival 

 of fish and unusually bad weather. Only a few 

 scattered landings were made before Novem- 

 ber 15. During the following week, weather 

 was fair and catches were good. Bad weather 

 began again on November 25, however, and 

 continued to the end of the season. In the few 

 brief days between periods of high winds or 

 unseasonable cold, few fish were located, and 

 only 15 small landings were made. 



Most of the 45 boats in the fishery did not 

 fish after November 24. The season's catch 

 was 29,000 tons, the smallest since 1952. 

 November ranked first in percentage of catch 

 (98 percent), followed by December (2 percent). 



Distribution of Purse Seine Sets 



The estimated numbers of purse seine sets 

 within 10-minute unit areas are shown in 

 figure 2. Nearly all sets were made within 

 the 20-fathom contour between lat. 29°40' N. 

 and 42°50' N. Most of the sets were in Chesa- 

 peake and Delaware Bays and in coastal 

 waters from Cape Henry, Va., to Long Island, 

 N.Y. 



For the third consecutive year no fishing 

 was done north of Massachusetts Bay, but in 

 contrast to 196l, fishing within the Bay was 

 good and about 640 sets were made. 



Fishing in the Chesapeake Bay Area in 1962 

 was distributed uniformly throughout the area, 

 although a somewhat greater number of sets 

 was made in the upper part of the Bay along 

 the Maryland - Virginia border. This distribu- 

 tion is in contrast to 1961, when over 85 

 percent of the sets were around the mouth 

 of the Bay. 



