nearby fishing grounds, and (2) an offshore 

 fleet of larger vessels, over 50 feet in 

 length, which usually fish from 2 to 6 days 

 each trip farther out along the Continental 

 Shelf. The two fleets fish for many of the 

 same species (cf. tables 1 and 2), but fish- 

 ing is done, primarily, in different seasons 

 (of. tables 3 and 4) and on different grounds 

 (cf. figs. 2 and 3): the inshore fleet fishes 

 from May through November within the 15- 

 fathom curve, and the offshore fleet fishes 

 from October through May outside the 15- 

 fathom curve. In late sumnner and early fall 

 both fleets may fish on concentrations of 

 fluke, porgy or scup, weakfish or gray sea 

 trout, and croaker which appear on the 

 banks inside the 15 -fathom curve. 



FISHING GROUNDS 



Detailed information on the grounds 

 fished by the inshore and offshore trawl 

 fleets was obtained from logbook records 

 kept by vessel captains. The number of 

 vessels which furnished complete logbook 

 records for the 4-year period amounted 

 to about 11 percent of the inshore fleet 

 and 22 percent of the offshore fleet. Re- 

 sulting data were tabulated by fleet for 

 each year (1954-58), but since no sig- 

 nificant changes were evident during Ihe 

 period, the average fishing effort in each 

 subarea by each fleet was calculated (in 

 percent) and is shown graphically in fig- 

 ures 2 and 3. Total effort was estimated 



from the ratio of landings with recorded 

 locality of capture data by the sample 

 fleet to the total landings. 



About 92 percent of the fishing by 

 the inshore fleet was conducted within 

 the 10-fathom curve (fig. 2). Five-Fathom 

 Bank and grounds immediately off the 

 mouth of Delaware Bay together accounted 

 for approximately 67 percent of the total 

 fishing effort, with contiguous areas sus- 

 taining most of the remainder. 



Table 2. — Species composition, offshore otter- 

 trawl landings 



[in thousands of pounds] 



Year 



Species 



Porgy 



Fluke 



Sea bass 



Butterf ish 



Lobster 



Squid 



All others 



Mean 



1954 1955 1956 1957 percent 



5,586 3,124 2,413 4,123 39.9 



2,861 2,484 3,474 1,839 27.9 



1,349 1,610 1,255 1,262 14.3 



918 646 826 838 8.4 



320 588 329 335 4.1 



107 86 94 216 1.3 



427 426 436 273 4.1 



Total 



11,568 8,964 8,827 8,886 



Table 3. — Monthly inshore otter-trawl 

 landings 



[in percent] 



