Table K. — Number of piirse seines, number of yards of seine, and catch per yard of 

 seine for the Gulf coast for various years 



Year 



Number 



of 



purse seines 



Number 

 of yards 

 of seine 



Catch per yard 

 in thousands 

 of pounds 



Source 



194-8. 



1949. 



1950. 



1951. 



1952. 



1953. 



1954.. 



1955. 



1956. 

 1957. 

 1958. 



No members of this genus had been 

 reported from South America north of 

 Salvadore (Baia), Brazil or from the 

 West Indies. 



One exception to the generally ac- 

 cepted western Atlantic distribution of 

 Brevoortia is the statement of Goode 

 (1879) concerning a menhaden in the 

 eastern Atlantic. He said large schools 

 of B. dorsalis of West Africa had been 

 reported to him. Fowler (1936) syn- 

 onym ized the African menhaden with 

 B. tyrannus . Since no specimen was 

 available for check, Hildebrand (1948) 

 doubted the identification. Briggs (1958) 

 listed B. tyrannus from Africa, but gave 

 no records. 



De Buen (1958) reduced the genus 

 Ethmedium (Thompson, 1916) to sub- 

 generic status in the genus BrevoOTtiOt 

 thereby extending the range of 

 Brevoortia to the Pacific coasts of 

 Peru and Chile. De Buen's arrange- 

 ment places the seven species of 

 Brevoortia recognized by Hildebrand 

 (1948) in a s\xhgen\is, Brevoortia , and 



adds Brevoortia (Ethmidium) maculata 

 (Valenciennes) 1847 and Brevoortia 

 (Ethmidium) chilcae (Hildebrand) 1946 

 to the genus Brevoortia. 



Brevoortia tyrannus of the Atlantic 

 is the most important and abundant 

 menhaden known (Ellison, 1951), and 

 approximately 73 percent (table 3) of 

 all the menhaden landed in the United 

 States from 1950 to 1957 belonged to 

 this species. The Atlantic menhaden 

 has been reported from the Bay of 

 Fundy to Indian River, Florida, and 

 has been fished from Maine toMayport, 

 Florida. 



Goode (1878) de scribed Brevoortia 

 patronus from specimens collected in 

 the Gulf of Mexico at Brazos Santiago, 

 Texas. Jordan and Evermann (1896) 

 listed the Gulf menhaden a.s BrevOOrtia 

 tyrannus patronus Goode. Regan (1917) 

 placed Brevoortia patronus in synon- 

 ymy with B. tyrannus. Gunter (1945) 

 stated that ' ' Brevoortia patronus Goode, 

 as some authors would have it", had 

 been recog[nized as the only species of 



