Table 39. --Gear employed in shad fisheries, by water area, New Jersey, 1896 and 1960 



Table 40, --Shad catch, by water area and gear, New Jersey, 1896 and 1960 



[In pounds] 



Caught incidentally in gears employed for other species. 



Shad were taken in 1960 in anchor gill and 

 pound nets along the ocean shore from the last 

 of March until mid- May, Anchor nets were 

 used principally in the small bays and sounds 

 near the mouths of the Manasquan, Shark, and 

 Shrewsbury Rivers, They averaged about 100 

 yd. long and 45 meshes deep and had 5-in. 

 mesh. The catch by 4,509 yd. ofnetwas 18,400 

 lb. Eight pound nets, near Point Pleasant, 

 N.J,, took 23,200 lb. In addition 1,100 lb. were 

 taken incidental to the catch of other species 

 by otter trawls fishing in the ocean. From a 

 previous study it was concluded that of the 

 pound net catches, 76 percent were Hudson 

 River fish, 13 percent Connecticut River fish, 

 and 11 percent fish from other Atlantic coast 

 streams (Nichols, 1958). 



Lower New York Bay 



Stevenson (1899) divided the Lower New York 

 Bay area into Sandy Hook Bay and RaritanBay. 

 Sandy Hook Bay forms part of the waterway 



tributary to the harbor of New York City and 

 is separated from the ocean on the east by a 

 narrow sand beach known as Sandy Hook. The 

 fishery in Sandy Hook Bay in 1896 was con- 

 fined to stake gill nets which averaged between 

 150 and l60 yd. long and had 5 l/4- to 6-in, 

 mesh. The 107 rows of net had an aggregate 

 length of 16,840 yd,; they yielded an estimated 

 27,499 lb, of shad. In Raritan Bay, which occu- 

 pies the triangular area between Statenlsland, 

 N.Y,, and the coast of Middlesex and Monmouth 

 Counties, N.J., including Raritan River estu- 

 ary, 427,050 lb, were taken by pound nets, 

 stake gill nets, seines, and fyke nets (table 40). 

 Gill nets were fished especially for shad, but 

 the other gears were used principally for other 

 species. The take in Raritan Bay proper was 

 181,815 lb., of which 61 percent was obtained 

 in pound nets, 36 percent in gill nets, 2 per- 

 cent in seines, and the remainder in fyke 

 nets. Fyke nets took an estimated 207,316 lb, 

 in the section bordering New York Bay and 

 10,420 lb, in the lower section of the Raritan 

 River, 



71 



