Table 19.— Length of scup in the catch of the winter trawl fishery landed at Virginia ports, 

 weighted according to the quantities landed on catch per day's fishing per trip basis, 1931-35 



[Numbers of fish] 



Fish below 17.0 cm. (approximately) discarded by dealers as unsaleable. 



of the coastal waters in spring, fish make 

 a return migration from the winter habitat 

 to the inshore summer fishing grounds. 



The study of hydrographic conditions is 

 based principally on serial water temperatures 

 collected by the Bureau's vessel Albatross II 

 in the winters of 1929-32, by the Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution research vessel 

 Atlantis in the winters of 1933 and 1934, 

 and by surface and bottom water temperatures 

 collected through the voluntary cooperation of 

 various fishing captains in the winters 1933- 

 35, inclusive. On the fishing vessels, observa- 

 tions were limited to bottom and surface only. 

 Since scup as well as sea bass and fluke 

 are caught on or near the bottom in the 

 winter trawl fishery, the temperature of the 

 water at or near the bottom is referred to 

 in the following discussion. 



The general sea bottom of the Atlantic 

 coast extending from Cape May to Cape 

 Hatteras (lat. 39° N. to lat. 35° lo' N.), 

 the region frequented by the winter trawl 

 fishery, is marked by its smoothness and 

 gradual slope (Bigelow, 1933). The breadth 

 of this submerged plain from the land out 

 to the 100-fathom contour is about 70 

 miles off Cape May, about 60 miles off 

 Chesapeake Bay, and about 20 miles off 

 Cape Hatteras. From the shore, it slopes 

 gradually until a depth of 50 to IrOO fathoms 

 is reached. Beyond the 50- to 100-fathom 

 zone, there is a more abrupt drop in the 

 ocean bed, with depths of 300 to 400 fathoms 

 recorded 5 to 10 miles beyond the edge 

 of the Continental Shelf. Beyond this is 

 a region of still deeper water extending 

 down to the abyssal depths of the 

 ocean. 



38 



