1936) regulations affect the catches of purse 

 seine and otter trawlers to a lesser extent, 

 because restriction applies only to certain 

 small areas relatively unimportant as com- 

 mercial fishing grounds. 



In contrast to proud nets and floating traps, 

 the purse seine fishery for scup is a com- 

 paratively recent development. Although the 

 purse seine has long been in use as an ef- 

 fective apparatus for catching schooling fish, 

 it was not until about 1920 that this gear came 

 into prominence in the scup fishery. Its use 

 resulted mainly from the development about 

 that time of motorized boats capable of making 

 quick trips to and from distant fishing loca- 

 tions. Thus, fishermen were able to operate 

 offshore in seasons when the market value 

 of fish was high. Because the southern New 

 Jersey ports offer good harbors and are con- 

 venient both to the offshore fishing grounds 

 and to good markets, they became a center 

 for the purse seine fishery. From these New 

 Jersey ports, purse seiners fish throughout 

 the summer for shore species, which are 

 most readily available or have the highest 

 market value. 



From 1930 to 1935, purse seines have pro- 

 duced a relatively small part of the total 

 yield of scup along the Atlantic coast (table 2). 

 During recent years the reported landings 

 of this species have been much less than the 

 actual catches, because quantities of fish have 

 been discarded at sea. This discarding often 

 occurs during periods of unusual abundance 

 that have prevailed along the New Jersey 

 coast in recent years. Furthermore, landing 

 reports do not always include the total possible 

 catch, since fishermen may pass up schools 

 of scup in search for more profitable species. 

 In the New Jersey summer fishery for scup, 

 however, the purse seine catch is relatively 

 important, being exceeded only by that of 

 pound nets (tables 1 and 2). 



OTTER TRAWLS 



The otter trawl fishery for scup is the only 

 year-round fishery for this species because 



this gear is effective in the winter when other 

 gear fails to catch this fish. The catch by otter 

 trawls in recent years accounts for approxi- 

 mately 28 percent of the total yield (table 2). 

 The relative importance of this gear is a 

 recent development, for prior to 1929 the 

 catch by otter trawls was insignificant and 

 was confined to the summer season. 



With the development of a winter trawl fish- 

 ery about 1929 and its rapid expansion in 

 later years, the catch increased greatly. The 

 winter and summer trawl fisheries, however, 

 are not only markedly different in the amount 

 of catch, but also in locality of fishery, size 

 of fleet, and kinds of fish caught in addition 

 to scup. 



The summer otter trawl fishery for scup 

 is conducted principally by New Jersey ves- 

 sels operating in inshore waters (about 5 to 

 40 fathoms) off Cape May, N.J., and Cape 

 Henlopen, Del. Its development began about 

 1926, a natural outgrowth from flounder 

 "dragging". In the winter in inshore waters, 

 small boats "dragged" (and still do) for winter 

 flounders {Pseudopleuronectes americanus, Wal- 

 baum) and in the summer, for fluke 

 (Paralichtys dentatus, Linnaeus). In recent sum- 

 mers (1935-36), fishermen using small otter 

 trawl along the inshore waters (out to 20 fath- 

 oms) of Fire Island, N.Y., have turned more 

 toward the catching of scup. This diversion 

 resulted from a scarcity of fluke and the 

 knowledge that scup can be caught by the 

 so-called "balloon net" as distinguished from 

 the so-called "flat net" commonly used for 

 fluke. The efficiency of the balloon net in 

 catching scup has been demonstrated by the 

 success of the southern winter trawl fishery, 

 which uses the net almost exclusively for 

 such species as scup and sea bass. It is 

 probable that the summer oner trawl fishery 

 for scup wiU increase in coming years in 

 other parts of the range of the species. 



At the beginning, the fleet consisted of 

 comparatively small powered boats (25-50 

 feet) that, because of their size, were re- 

 stricted to fishing close to shore (not beyond 



