a part of this general investigation that be- 

 gan with a study of the summer inshore 

 commercial fisheries of the Middle Atlantic 

 and southern New England States and was 

 subsequently extended to the summer fisheries 

 of Virginia and also to the winter fishery 



offshore of the Virginia Capes. The following 

 report comprises a description of the scup 

 fishery, information on the life history, migra- 

 tions, and causes of fluctuations in yield with 

 recommendations for the conservation along 

 the Atlantic coast. 



RANGE 



Scup (fig. 1) ranges along the eastern coast 

 of the United States from South Carolina to 

 Maine (Holbrook, 1855; Bigelow and Welsh, 

 1925). South of New York scup is commonly 

 known as "porgy", and along the southern 

 part of New England, as "scup". 



Baird (1873) remarks as follows about the 

 vernacular name of the scup: 



Steindachner 

 as follows: 



and Agasslz (1872) comment 



In 1621, Massasoit entertained his half-famished 

 Puritan visitors with "two fishes, like bream, but three 

 times so big and better meat." This was on the shore of 

 Buzzard's Bay, and the fishes can have been nothing 

 else than scup .... The Englishmen doubtless meant 

 what is still called in Europe the "common sea-bream" 

 whose outline is much like that of our scup. 



Common names: porgy; porgee; scup; scuppaug; 

 mischup. The species has a lesser variety of names than 

 most others belonging to our coast; . . . it is the familiar 

 scup of scuppaug, from mish-cup-pauog of the Nar- 

 ragansett Indians. In the time of Roger Williams its 

 English appellation was bream, from the resemblance 

 to the British fish of that name. 



Its greatest commercial importance is in the 

 summer fishery from New Jersey to the 

 southern shores of Cape Cod, Mass., and in 

 a winter fishery from off Cape Hatteras, N.C. 

 (lat. 35° 10' N.) to the offing of Cape May, 

 N.J. (lat. 39° N.). 



Figure 1.— Scup 



