of boats, and by the winter of 1935, over 

 100 vessels were engaged in this new fishery 

 (Nesbit and Neville, 1935). 



The present fleet has largely high-powered, 

 sturdy vessels equipped for fishing any part 

 of the region from Cape Hatteras to Cape 

 Cod and in depths out to about 80 fathoms. 

 Most of the winter trawlers land their catches 

 at Virginia ports, namely: Norfolk, Phoebus, 

 and Portsmouth. A smaller part of the fleet 

 lands its fares at Cape May and Wildwood, 

 N.J.; and in the more recent winters, an in- 

 creasing number at New York, N.Y. 



The landings of this winter fishery have 

 increased so rapidly since its inception in 

 1929 that the catch now amounts to approxi- 

 mately 73 percent of the total yield of scup 

 by otter trawls from New Jersey to Massa- 

 chusetts and approximately 20 percent of the 

 catch by all gear. 



HANDLINES 



Commercial and sport handline fishing for 

 scup is carried on along various sections 

 of the coast. An important commercial fish- 

 ery is centered at Wildwood, N.J., where a 

 fleet of small boats fishes, in addition to 

 scup, for squeteague, sea bass, and bluefish. 

 Some fishing is also done in the vicinity of 



Montauk, N.Y., and Woods Hole, Mass., prin- 

 cipally for scup, sea bass, and fluke. The 

 best handline fishing is usually in August, 

 September, and October, after the main spawn- 

 ing season is over, since scup do not take the 

 hook readily during the spawning season. 



The catch by commercial handliners was 

 an important part of the total yield of all 

 gear in early days, but in late years, with the 

 development of more efficient methods of 

 fishing, the handline catch has diminished 

 to insignificant proportions compared to other 

 forms of gear. 



In recent years, salt-water angling has 

 markedly increased, especially along the 

 shores of New York and New Jersey. Although 

 complete records of catch by anglers are not 

 available, it is believed, on the basis of a 

 few reports, that this catch must amount to 

 surprisingly large quantities of fish and in 

 some localities even exceeds the catch by 

 the local commercial gear. It was not possible 

 to cover this sport fishery in this study. 

 Catch records of both the commercial hand- 

 liner and angling fisheries have been omitted 

 from further discussion, because the data 

 are incomplete and otherwise unsuitable for 

 explaining changes in yield. 



FLUCTUATIONS IN YIELD AND THEIR CAUSES 



In the following discussion of the fluctua- 

 tions in yield of scup, tht summer fishery 

 will be treated separately from the winter 

 fishery because of the differences in the 

 kind of gear, the locality of the catch, and 

 the quantity of catch. Also, there is the 

 possibility, indicated by results of tagging 

 experiments, that certain parts of the sum- 

 mer fishery draw on separate population 

 units, which are available to the winter fish- 

 ery because of migrations to a common 

 winter habitat. In addition, it is desirable 



to divide the summer fishery into a New Jersey 

 fishery and a New York-southern New England 

 fishery because the fisheries in these two 

 localities also differ in the type of gear used, 

 the length of season, the quantity, size, and 

 age composition of the catch, and also because 

 of the possibility that each fishery draws on 

 separate population units. 



Total annual landings of scup were deter- 

 mined for various years between 1879 and 

 1933, as a result of periodic canvasses by 



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