THE FISHERY FOR SCUP WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 

 TO FLUCTUATIONS IN YIELD AND THEIR CAUSES 



by 

 William C. Neville and Gerald B. Talbot 



ABSTRACT 



The catch of scup over the past 50 years has fluctuated widely. Data on this 

 flshery for recent years (1922-35), obtained from State and Federal agencies, com- 

 mercial fishery, and fishermen, have been analysed to determine causes of fluc- 

 tuations. It was found that fluctuations in the summer fishery from New Jersey to 

 Massachusetts were caused mainly by differences in the size of the successive year 

 classes entering the fishery. Fluctuations in the catch of the winter trawl fishery 

 off the Virginia Capes resulted from changes in the amount of cooling of the bottom 

 water where these fish are found in winter. During cold-water conditions, the fish 

 became more concentrated and were more easily caught; whereas, when the water 

 was warmer, the fish scattered more widely and were not as readily available. Al- 

 though fluctuations in catch of the summer and winter fishery have different causes, 

 results of tagging and observations of size composition have disclosed that both 

 fisheries draw on the same general stock. 



INTRODUCTION 



The shorefishes of the coastal waters of the 

 Middle Atlantic and southern New England 

 States undoubtedly facilitated the early coloni- 

 zation of this region and subsequently have 

 supported a fishing industry of major com- 

 mercial and recreational importance. Among 

 these fishes, the scup, Stenotomus chrysops' , 

 has always been important, especially along 

 the southern New England coast. Among the 

 inshore species, it has usually ranked first 

 both in quantity and in value since 1880, when 

 the earliest catch statistics were collected. 

 Along the coasts of New Jersey and New York, 

 scup was relatively less important in the early 

 years of the fishery, but of late (1929-33) 

 tremendously increased catches have placed 



Note.— William C. Neville is now with the Columbia 

 River Packers, Tokyo, Japan, and Gerald B. Talbot 

 with the Tiburon Marine Laboratory, Bureau of Sport 

 Fisheries and Wildlife, U^. Fish and Wildlife Serv- 

 ice, Tiburon, Calif. 



1 Listed as S. versicolor by some authors. 



it third in quantity and sixth in value among 

 the food fishes of those States. 



The fluctuations in yield which have charac- 

 terized the history of the species from Colonial 

 days to the present have been at times the sub- 

 ject of lively discussion as to their causes 

 (Baird, 1873; Bigelow and Welsh, 1925). Lyman 

 (1872) stated: 



Scup were abundant when the whites first visited the 

 country, certainly in 1621 to 1642. At some time after 

 this, not yet ascertained, they disappeared wholly, and, 

 toward the end of the last century were not known in 

 our waters. About 1794 they reappeared, and became 

 abundant. In 1864 they decreased very much and are at 

 the present scarce. ♦••*••• And now, in the midst of 

 this theorizing and seeking for evidence, rises a 

 phenomenon which puzzles both parties of the dispute. 

 About the first of Juneofthisyear(1871) those trappers 

 at Saugkonnet Point who had kept their netting down 

 until that time, were astounded to find their traps 

 clogged with myriads of "dollar-scup," little fish about 

 the size of a Spanish doUar. They were tipped out of 

 the bowls by hundreds of barrelsful. 



