comprised over 90 percent of drift gill-net 

 landings, while all other species, princi- 

 pally weakfish, whiting, Atlantic nnenhaden, 

 sea herring, and sharks, made up the 

 remainder of the catch. Interviews with 

 fishermen indicated that nnore recently, 

 sea herring and Atlantic menhaden have 

 contributed an increased share of the 

 catch, but since there is little or no 

 market demand for these species during 

 the winter months, only very small quanti- 

 ties are brought ashore and sold for bait. 

 Due to the virtual disappearance of mack- 

 erel, the few remaining gill-net fisher- 

 men recently have begun the practice of 

 setting their nets in the shallow-water 

 channels close inshore where weakfish 

 occur in concentration at certain times. 



TRAWL-LINE FISHERY 



A winter trawl -line fishery, princi- 

 pally for cod, is conducted in the area from 

 late November until early April. The major 

 fishing grounds are those utilized during 

 the sumnner by the sea bass pot fishermen 

 and comprise the rocky, uneven slopes, 

 between roughly 8 and 15 fathoms. 



Total trawl- line landings, shown in 

 table 12, do not reflect fish abundance for 

 several reasons. Low prices, poor market 

 demand, high operating costs, and the poor 

 fishing season of 1953-54 all have con- 

 tributed to a variable expenditure of fishing 

 effort. Furthermore, since the survey area 

 marks the southern edge of its distribution 

 in the western Atlantic, cod shows marked 



variations in occurrence. The net result of 

 these factors is that, in recent years, 

 many trawl-line fishermen have turned to 

 other fisheries for their livelihood. 



HAND-AND TROLL-LINE FISHERIES 



Comnnercial hand- and troll-line fish- 

 ing from small skiffs and power boats 

 contributes relatively little to the commer- 

 cial foodfish production within the area. 

 During 1954-57, average annual production 

 by these gears amounted to 188,000 pounds. 

 The bulk of the landings were made by 

 casual and part-time fishermen regularly 

 employed in some other fishery or by 

 sport fishermen with catches exceeding 

 their personal wants. 



Species composition of the hand-line 

 catch (table 13) shows that weakfish gen- 

 erally accounted for nearly one-half of the 

 landings. In 1955, however, croaker domi- 

 nated for the first time since 1949. In 

 contrast, over 90 percent of the troll-line 

 catch for the period consisted of bluefish. 



SPORT FISHERY 



The recreational or sport fishery rep- 

 resents an important part of the fishing 

 activities within the survey area. An esti- 

 mated 4 million pounds of fish are landed 

 annually by the party- and charter-boat 

 fleets. 



Table 12. — Species composition, trawl- 

 line fishery [in pounds] 



The bulk of the ocean sport-fishing 

 fleet is comprised of party, charter, and 

 private boats. Few, if any, rowboats venture 

 out of the bays and inland tidal waters. 

 Surf fishing occurs on all the open beaches, 

 but contributes little to the total catch. 



Surveys within the area were confined 

 to charter and party boats for hire, and no 

 adequate methods were developed to esti- 

 mate the catch or effort of private boats. 

 Alperin' estimated that 27 percent of the 

 sport fishing man-hours in the New York 

 Marine District were expended from pri- 

 vate boats, as compared with 35 percent 



2 Marine sport fishery statistics program in New York. By 

 Irwin M. Alperin, New York Conservation Department; Atlantic 

 States Marine Fislieries Commission, minutes 14th Annual 

 Meeting (1955), no pagination (mimeo.). 



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