so o 



Figure 27.— Atlantic menhaden catch per unit of effort 

 by area, 1940-68. 



A relation between the Chesapeake Bay and 

 Middle Atlantic menhaden fisheries can be 

 shown by a comparison of catch per unit of 

 effort for various ages of fish caught in the two 

 areas (Fig. 28). This relation between the catch 

 per unit of effort of 1- and 2-year-old men- 

 haden in Chesapeake Bay and the catch per 



* *~ 200 





100 iOO MO 400 900 tOO 700 SOO MO 



CPue ) AND 2 YCAII FI3H (NUHHRI CHCSA^CAHC *k1 



Figure 28.— Catch per unit of effort of 1- and 2-year- 

 old menhaden in Chesapeake Bay compared to CPUE 

 of 2- and 3-year old menhaden (1 year later) in 

 Middle Atlantic Area. 



unit of effort of 2- and 3-year-old menhaden 1 

 year later in the Middle Atlantic Area is highly 

 significant (r = 0.91, P < 0.01, 9 df). The 

 relation that exists between these two areas is 

 further substantiated by tagging studies cur- 

 rently being conducted. The 1967 tagging 

 studies showed that a significant number of 

 menhaden tagged in Chesapeake Bay migrated 

 to the Middle Atlantic Area and were later 

 recaptured in the Middle Atlantic fishery, both 

 in the same year the tags were applied and in 

 the following year (Henry and Kutkuhn, 

 1970). 



DYNAMICS OF THE POPULATION 



A series of relatively strong year classes of 

 Atlantic menhaden occurred in the 1950's. 

 Since age data are only available since 1955, we 

 can only speculate on the sizes of the year 

 classes before that time. However, the good 

 catch of 4-year-old fish in 1955 indicates that 

 the 1951 year class must have been good. The 

 1955 and 1956 year classes also were abun- 

 dant, followed by the superabundant 1958 

 year class from which over 8 billion fish were 

 caught (Table 2). Most of the catch from a year 

 class is 1- and 2-year-old fish. Coupled with 

 these good year classes was a major increase in 

 fishing effort, which went from 5,500 standard 

 vessel landing days (SVLD) in the early 1950's 



Table 2.— Number of Atlantic menhaden caught in the 

 purse seine fishery by year class, 1955-68. 



*Preliminary— partially estimated. 



15 



