8) In New Jersey most of the catch is made in the fall; at Montauk^ 

 No Y.5 it is made in the sprin[^. At K.re Island when spring; catches are 

 large, as in 1929 j the fish are similar in size to those taken at Montaukj 

 but when the fall catches are large^ the fish are similar in size and age 

 composition to those taken in northern New Jersey, This together with 

 the observation that different year classes have dominated the Montauk and 

 the New Jersey fisheries, suggests two distinct stocks of weakfish north 

 of Delaware Bay, 



The movements of weakfish indicated by the foregoing are summarized 

 below in the form of a hypothesis which will be tested, and in some respects 

 elaborated, by tagging experiments and studies of the scales. 



A Hypothesis 



First period , from the first to the second autumn. — Young weakfish, 

 (O-group^ resulting from the year's spawning (which takes place during late 

 spring and early summer) become distributed, by fall, all along the coast 

 from Long Island to North Carolina. During November and December they mi- 

 grate into the warm waters off Virginia and North Carolina, where they 

 spend their first winter. In the following sprin^;, these fish (now I-group) 

 move inshore, most of them sojourning along the North Carolina coast, pro- 

 gressively fewer from there northward. Some of the yearlings remain in North 

 Carolina through the summer, but many others stay no longer than the middle 

 of August. Most of them then migrate northward along the coast to Virginia, 

 but a few which had spent the preceding autumn north of Delaware Bay (as 

 0-group fish) go as far as New Jersey. 



Second period , from the second to the third autumn . — iVith the autumnal 

 cooling, the j'^earlings at;ain move into the deeper, warmer offshore water, 

 probably off North Carolina and Virginia. There they spend the winter. The 

 following spring they again move inshore, (now as Il-group fish) to North 

 Carolina and Virginia, some of them to New York and New Jersey. During sum- 

 mer, there is a general movement from south to north, bringing fish from 

 Virginia and Nprth Carolina to as far north as southern New Jersey. Not 

 all of the Il-group make this migration for they are usually well represented 

 in the fall samples taken in southern localities. 



At the end of the period, that is, by the third autumn, three contin- 

 gents of weakfish may be described according to their movements during the 

 summer just finished; the first which had remained south of Delaware Bay 

 all summer; and the second which had appeared there (mainly in southern 

 New Jersey) in midsummer; and the third which had appeared in New York in 

 early spring and remains all summer. This group is usually only in eastern 

 Long Island; occasionally, as in 1929, at Fire Island. 



Third period , and subsequent periods , from the third to the fourth 

 autumn , the f o urth to the fifth, etc.— The Il-group fish of these three 



52 



