TABLE 1.— Catch, total number of sets, and catch per set of the Atlantic menhaden purse seine fishery, 1955-58 



^ Slight discrepancies in number as given in previous reports and in subtotals and totals due to rounding the fig- 

 ures. 



^ Source: Edward A. Power Fishery Statistics of the United States, 1958. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Statisti- 

 cal Digest 49, 424 p. 



^ The North Carolina fall fishery normally extends into January, therefore, catch total includes January 1959, but 

 not January 1958. Seasonal breakdown of the catch obtained from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, C.F.S. Nos. 1991 and 

 1996. 



season since 1955 at the various menhaden 

 reduction plants shown in figure 1. 



This, the fourth in a series of reports, 

 summarizes data obtained from the catch- 

 sampling program in 1958. Included are: (1) a 

 review of the 1958 purse seine fishery; (2) 

 measures of toial catch, fishing effort, and 

 catch per unit effort, including information on 

 the geographical distribution of fishing effort; 

 (3) summaries of data on the number, age, 

 length, weight, and sex of fish in the catches; 

 and (4) a discussion of results. As in previous 

 reports, summary and discussion of the data 

 are referred to four geographical areas (fig. 1) 

 and two time periods — the "summer" fishery 

 (May 5 to October 18)i and the "fall" fishery 

 (October 28 to January 29, 1959). 



^ Several small purse seine catches of Atlantic men- 

 haden were made off northern Florida in Novemberand 

 December, but mixed with other species and, there- 

 fore, excluded. 



REVIEW OF THE 1958 PURSE 

 SEINE FISHERY 



The purse seine catch of Atlantic menhaden 

 in 1958 was 540,000 tons (table 1),' of which 

 462,000 tons were taken in the summer fishery 

 and 78,000 tons in the North Carolina fall 

 fishery. A decrease in the catches in the 

 Middle and North Atlantic Areas was largely 

 responsible for the decline in total catch. In 

 the Middle Atlantic Area, the catch was more 

 than 100,000 tons below that of the previous 

 season (32-percent decrease), and in the North 

 Atlantic it was less than half that in 1957. 

 The catches in the summer fishery in the 

 South Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay Areas and 

 the fall fishery in North Carolina were greater 

 than those in the previous season. 



'Additional 16,000 tons of Atlantic menhaden were 

 caught by other gears. Pound nets accounted for 14,000 

 tons, and the remainder was caught by gill nets, haul 

 seines, fyke nets, and otter trawls (Power, 1960). An 

 estimated 65 percent of the 16,000-ton catch was re- 

 duced into fish meal, oil, and solubles; the remainder 

 was used for bait. 



