Table 20.--Suimary of recaptures of soup tagged and released in the summer and winter fisheries, 1931-33^ 



■'■ Data from tables 21 and 22. 

 ^ Otter trawl fishery off Virginia Capes. 

 •' Percent - recaptured x 100 

 . released 



Fish doubly tagged, but considered as "one return" when the two tags (external and internal) were recovered 

 from same fish. 



' After tagging, fish held 7 to 10 days before being released. 



same population units, but at different times 

 in their period of life. 



On the other hand, it might be argued that 

 the same conditions that caused the great 

 abundance of several successive year classes 

 along the New Jersey coast after 1927 were 

 equally effective in producing large numbers 

 of scup of the same year classes in a unit 

 common to Rhode Island and New York, but 

 for unknown reasons, perhaps environmental, 

 the main body of those small fish are not 

 readily available to the inshore gear at the 



more northern points of the range. The facts — 

 the main season for scup at New York and 

 Rhode Island is short (about 2 months) and 

 their small sizes appear at the end of that 

 short season — suggest that the scup may be 

 available only for a short time in the inshore 

 trap area and that not till later, as older and 

 larger fish, do they change their habits and 

 movements so as to become more available 

 not only by appearaing at the beginning of the 

 season but also by trapping more readily 

 when moving in large spawning schools close 

 Inshore. 



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