March (except October at 13.4 percent); the 

 peak contribution was in April at 19.1 percent 

 (table 12). 



LEIOSTOMUS XANTHURUS .--The yearly 

 average catch of spot for the area was 156 per 

 hour of trawling, representing 5.7 percent of 

 the total catch. 



Only 9 spots were taken per hour of trawling 

 in May; the number increased over the summer 

 and from July to November fluctuated between 

 123 and 214, peaked at 218 and 230 in January 

 and February, declined sharply in March, and 

 continued declining to the low in May (table 12). 



Spots contributed only 1.5 to 3.8 percent of the 

 monthly average catches in September to De- 

 cember; two widely separated peaks of contri- 

 bution occurred--one at 1 5.6 percent in Febru- 

 ary and another at 2 0.6 percent in July (table 12). 



BAGRE MARINUS .--The yearly average 

 catch of gafftopsail catfish was 121 per hour of 

 trawling, representing 4.5 percent of the total 

 catch. 



Only 0,3 to 2 gafftopsail catfish were taken 

 per hour of trawling in May to August; the 

 number peaked abruptly at 692 in September, 

 fluctuated between 80 and 186 from October to 

 January, and declined abruptly to about 4 to 19 

 in February to April and to the low in May to 

 August (table 12). 



The species contributed only 0.1 to 1.1 per- 

 cent of the nnonthly average catches from 

 February to August, a peak contribution of 15.4 

 percent in September, and 2.1 to 4.3 percent in 

 October to January (table 12). 



VOMER SETAPINNUS. --The yearly average 

 catch of nnoonfish was 1 10 per hour of trawling, 

 representing 4.1 percent of the total catch. 



Only one nnoonfish was taken per hour of 

 trawling in July; the number increased steadily 



over late summer and fall, peaked at 443 in 

 December, declined abruptly to 131 in January, 

 and generally continued to decline to the low in 

 July (table 12). 



Moonfish contributed only 0.1 percent of the 

 monthly average catch in July, 3.9 to 11.8 

 percent in October to January (peak in Decem- 

 ber), and 0.3 to 2.6 percent from February to 

 June (table 12). 



SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA 

 OUTSIDE COMBINED 



Table 7 shows the monthly average numbers 

 of fish per hour of trawling (all species . 

 combined) in the outside grounds. From a low of 

 about 700 to 900 fish per hour of trawling from 

 March to June the number taken increased 

 rapidly to 1,217 and 1,539 in July and August, 

 peaked at 3, 158 in September, maintained a high 

 level of 2,173 to 2,795 from October to 

 January, declined sharply to 1, 192 in February, 

 and continued to the low in March to June. The 

 yearly average catch for all species combined 

 was 1,752 fish per hour of trawling, of which 

 1,279 were sciaenids --or about 3 of every 4 

 fish caught. 



Families and species data for the combined 

 outside category are not discussed, as this 

 description was given for the three basic areas 

 (South Carolina Outside, Georgia Outside, and 

 Florida Outside). Details of the data for this 

 combination are in tables 1, 7, 9, and 10. 



LITERATURE CITED 



ANDERSON, W. W., M. J. LINDNER, and J. E. 



KING. 



1949. The shrimp fishery of the southern 

 United States. Fish Wildl. Serv., 

 Commer. Fish Rev. 11(2): 1-17, 



16 



