SUMMARY AMD CONCLUSIONS 



Little is known concerning the migration of shore fishes which summer 

 in the inshore waters of the Middle Atlantic Bight, Previous tagging 

 experiments suggest that the several species migrate southward as well as 

 offshore in the winter. Foremost among the questions raised by these 

 migrations are those concerning the unity or diversity of the populations. 

 Are populations of weakfish found along the East coast all of one race or 

 do we have a number of races represented? This knowledge is important from 

 both an economic and scientific standpoint. 



The complex movements of weakfish have been studied by comparing the 

 stocks of fish at several localities as to abundance, size, age composition^ 

 and rate of growth, and by tagging experiments. 



Samples selected for study were all obtained from the pound net fishery,. 

 Catch records were obtained from the following sources: Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, State of New Jersey Board of Fish and Game Commissioners, and 

 personal records of companies and individuals. Lengths, weights, and scale 

 samples were taken at various localities from 1928-1932. For localities 

 north of Delaware Bay length samples were grouped into periods of varying 

 duration called grouped samples. Size composition was nearly the same for 

 each period. Weighting of length frequencies by the average catch per net 

 for each period gave an estimate of the number of fish at each length 

 caught per net. 



Age was determined by examination of scales. The method of age 

 analysis was based on repeated reading of a large number of scales until 

 consistent criteria of interpretation were found. The method was confirmed 

 by a quantitative analysis of the intracircular distance. 



It is an open question whether all of the 0-group fish were spawned 

 in the localities where they were captured or whether extensive migration 

 had occurred between spawning in June and capture in October, By fall the 

 0-group is distributed all along the coast from Long Island to North 

 Carolina, During November and December they migrate to the warm waters off 

 Virginia and North Carolina where they spend their first winter. Many of 

 the I-group migrate from North Carolina to Virginia and a few to southern 

 New Jersey in midsurmner. This migration pattern is repeated each year by 

 all age groups, which return to southern waters in winter and move coast- 

 wise and northward in summer. The data sug^-;est that most of the two-year- 

 old fish north of Delaware Bay are immigrants, presumably recruited from 

 stocks of yearlings in localities south of Delaware Bay where such weak- 

 fish are regularly present. Weakfish three or more years old constitute 

 the bulk of the catch only in northern New Jersey and some years at Fire 

 Island which leads us to believe that these fish are recruited from the 

 southern New Jersey two-year-old stocks. 



In all sampling locations fall caught fish were larger than spring 

 caught fish except in Virginia and southern New Jersey where the reverse 



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