Age and Size Composition of the Atlantic Menhaden, 



Brevoortia tyrannus, Purse Seine Catch, 1963-71, 



with a Brief Discussion of the Fishery 



WILLIAM R. NICHOLSON' 



ABSTRACT 



The catch of Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannua, estimates of numbers offish caught 

 by age. fishing effort, age and size distribution, and changes in the fishery are summarized and 

 briefly discussed for the five areas of the Atlantic coast of the United States for 1963-71. Append- 

 ed are tables of seasonal length frequency distributions and mean lengths by age and port and 

 tables of monthly mean lengths by sex, age, and port. The purse seine fishery declined after 

 1962. North of Chesapeake Bay, plants closed or reduced fishing as fish became scarce. Of eight 

 plants that processed menhaden in 1962 only two operated in 1971. The catch and catch per unit 

 of effort in Chesapeake Bay declined as effort increased. South of Cape Hatteras, N.C. the 

 fishery, which had been small compared to the fishery in other areas, showed little change. The 

 average age and size of fish in the total catch declined as the fishery north of Chesapeake Bay, 

 which mainly caught older and larger fish, declined. Age-1 and -2 fish, which constituted most 

 of the catch from Florida to Chesapeake Bay, increased in average length and weight. 



INTRODUCTION 



In this report routine data collected from 1963 to 

 1971 on population dynamics of Atlantic menhaden, 

 Brevoortia tyrannus, and major changes in the purse 

 seine fishery are discussed. Included are length and 

 weight statistics of individual age groups in samples 

 taken at ports from Florida to New York, the annual 

 catch, estimates of the number of fish caught at each 

 age in the five divisions of the fishery, the number of 

 vessel weeks (fishing effort), and catch per unit of ef- 

 fort. 



Reports titled, "Age and size distribution of the 

 Atlantic menhaden catch along the Atlantic coast of 

 the United States, with a brief review of the fishery," 

 have been published for the following years: 1952-55 

 (June and Reintjes 1959); 1956 (June and Reintjes 

 1960); 1957 (June 1961); 1958 (June and Nicholson 

 1964); 1959-62 (Nicholson and Higham 1964a, 1964b, 

 1965, 1966). 



In previous reports data were summarized and dis- 

 cussed for five divisions of the fishery: the North, 

 Middle, and South Atlantic areas; the Chesapeake 

 Bay area; and the North Carolina fall fishery. These 

 divisions described in the first report in the series 

 (June and Reintjes 1959) have been retained, with one 

 modification: the boundary between the Chesapeake 

 Bay and South Atlantic areas has been changed from 

 lat. 36°35'N to lat. 35°20'N because no vessels from 

 South Atlantic ports fish above lat. 35°N (Fig. 

 1). 



Some major changes in the format have been made. 



'Atlantic Estuarine Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, NOAA, Beaufort, NC 28516. 



Length frequencies of each age group are summarized 

 by port rather than by division of the fishery; mean 

 lengths and total number of males and females of each 

 age are shown instead of frequencies for each sex; 

 mean lengths are shown by port and month rather 

 than by area and season; and only mean weights of all 

 ages combined for each port are shown. Because there 

 is no suitable method of determining the amount of 

 effort expended in each area by vessels from a par- 

 ticular port, the estimated numbers of fish of each age 

 are summarized by port of landing rather than by area 

 of capture, as in previous reports. The distribution 

 and estimated numbers of purse seine sets have been 

 omitted because this information has been discussed 

 in another publication (Nicholson 1971). 



To facilitate some text table and all appendix table 

 headings, the following numeric codes are used for the 

 various ports: 



Fernandina Beach, Fla. 1 



Southport, N.C. 2 



Beaufort, N.C. summer fishery 3 



Reedville and Cape Charles, Va. 4 



Lewes, Del. 5 



Wildwood, N.J. 6 



Port Monmouth, N.J. 7 



Amagansett, N.Y. 8 



Point Judith, R.I. 9 



North Carolina fall fishery 10 



Plants at Yonges Island, S.C. and Portland, Maine 

 did not operate and plants at Gloucester, Mass. and 

 Tuckerton, N.J. were not sampled. In this report the 

 North Carolina fall fishery, while technically not a 

 port, is treated as one. 



