AtlcLntic catch, but the 1951 (age 4) and 

 1952 (age 3) year classes also made substjin- 

 tial contributions. In the North Atlsintic 

 the 1951 year class formed over two-thirds 

 of the purse-seine catch, with the 1950 

 (age 5) and the 1952 year classes each con- 

 tributing about equally to the catch in the 

 area. The 1953 and 1954 year classes were 

 not represented in the samples from northern 

 waters. 



It is evident from the above that the 

 age distributions in individual areas 

 differed considerably. The youngest age 

 groups, almost exclusively, contributed to 

 the summer catches in southern waters, while 

 successively older age groups dominated the 

 catches farther northward. While these 

 differences in age composition may be due, 

 in part, to differential availability of 

 certain age groups, they strongly suggest a 

 differential migration of the older (and 

 larger) fish during the summer months. 



An influx of older fish into southern 

 waters in late fall is evident from the 

 change in age composition of the catch off 

 the North Carolina coast (bottom panel of 

 fig. 10). However, the striking feature of 

 the age composition is the overwhelming 

 dominance of the 1955 year class (age 0) 

 vrtiich appeared for the first time in quan- 

 tity in this locality during the last few 

 weeks of the 1955 season. This age group 

 comprised over four-fifths of the fall 

 catch, and its estimated contribution was 

 742.3 million fish. The significance of the 

 large number of these fish on the North 

 Carolina grounds is not as yet known. 



The average percentage age composition 

 of samples from the 1955 spring (April and 

 May) pound-net catches in Chesapeake Bay and 

 in Raritan and Lower New York Bays is given 

 below. The age composition of the early 

 pound-net catch in Chesapeeike Bay closely 

 resembled that of the summer purse-seine 

 catches in that area (cf. Appendix table 3 

 and fig. 10), although the older age groups 



SOUTH ATLANTIC AREA 



CHESAPEAKE BAY 



MIDDLE ATLANTIC AREA 



JL 



NORTH ATLANTIC AREA 



NORTH CAROLINA 

 FALL FISHERY 



I 2 3456789 10 



AGE 



1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 

 YEAR CLASS 



Figure 10. — Age composition of samples from Atlantic 

 coast menhaden purse -seine catches, by area, 1955. 



were'~ln greater evidence in spring. In 

 contrast, the age composition of the early 

 pound-net catches in Raritan and Lower New 

 York Bays differed considerably from that 

 of the summer purse-seine catches in the 

 area, but closely resembled that of the 

 North Atlantic summer purse-seine season 

 (see Appendix table 3). This strongly sug- 

 gests that the spring "run" of fish into 

 northern New Jersey-southern Long Islemd 



waters subsequently moved into north- 

 ern waters. 



LENGTH AND WEIGHT COMPOSITION 



The length and weight composi- 

 tion of each age group in samples 

 from the Middle Atlantic purse-seine 

 catches from 1952 through 1954 and 



L6 



