Gunter (1938a) gave a further re- 

 port on the data collected aboard the 

 "Black Mallard", including collections 

 made in 1934. Brevoortia patronus v/as 

 the third ranked fish, taken in the bays, 

 and fourteenth in the Gulf. It made up 

 14.1 percent of the 144,000 fishes 

 caught. 



On the basis of collections, gen- 

 eral observations, and evidence from 

 mass mortalities, Gunter (1941b) 

 ranked the menhaden as second "in 

 species mass" among fishes in shallow 

 waters of the northern Gulf, preceded 

 by Anchoa mitchilli and followed by 

 Mugil cephaliiS' 



Gunter (1945) showed that Bre- 

 VOOrtia ranked twelfth among all species 

 caught in Copano and Aransas Bays 

 and off the Gulf beach of Mustang 

 Island, Texas; it ranked ninth in the 

 bay catches. A comparison of trawl 

 catches in Louisiana bays and Texas 

 bays showed that Brevoortia ranked 

 third in Louisiana catches and seventh 

 in Texas. It seemed to be less common 

 in Texas. 



Fowler (1945) listed B, patronus 

 from Louisiana and Galveston. 



Jurgens and Hubbs (1953) included 

 B. gunteri as one of the fishes found in 

 the fresh waters of Texas. Knapp 

 (1953) listed B, gunteri as ascending 

 and B. patronus as possibly ascending 

 Texas rivers. 



H. H. Hildebrand (1953) said men- 

 haden are not often taken in trawls by 

 shrimpers, but sometimes large 

 schools are encountered which burst 

 the trawls. He reported fifteen speci- 

 mens of B. patronus taken in two trawl 

 hauls at 17 and 18 fathoms off south 

 Texas. 



Reid (1955a), working in East Bay, 

 Texas, noted that where "considerable" 

 water depth and mud bottom extended 

 to the marsh edge, menhaden and 

 various croakers were more abundant 

 while atherinids and cyprinodontids 

 were less. While sampling the Gulf 

 beach at Gilchrist, Texas, across from 

 East Bay, Reid (1955b) found that more 



menhaden were taken than all other 

 fishes. The 2,664 B. patronus caught 

 made up 58.7 percent of the catch. 

 Their size range was 89 to 198 mm. 

 standard length but only nine were 

 smaller than the largest bay fish. 



Breuer (1957) said that Brevoortia 

 sp. were not comnnon in the high- 

 salinity Baffin and Alazan Bays of 

 Texas, but that a few large ones 

 appeared in the fall and some small 

 ones in the summer. Temperature and 

 salinity ranges were not given for 

 species reported in Breuer's paper. 



Gunter (1950) recorded 95 speci- 

 mens of B. gunteri taken along the 

 Blackjack Peninsula shore (Aransas 

 National Wildlife Refuge) of Mesquite 

 and Ayres Bays, Texas from February 

 to June 1945, where they were the 

 third most abundant fish in minnow 

 seines. The average monthly tem- 

 peratures ranged from 19.0°to32.1°C. 

 and salinity range was 9.5-18.3%o. In 

 the connecting salt-flat ponds, only a 

 few miles away, this species was taken 

 only 8 times among 1,324 fishes, and 

 ranked ninth in numbers caught. The 

 average temperatures in that area 

 during the same period were 19.0°- 

 32.1° C. and the salinities were 4.4- 

 12.2%o. 



Caldwell (1954) listed B. gunteri 

 from a salt-marsh pond on Way Key, 

 (Cedar Keys) Florida. Suttkus (1958) 

 said the fish was B. smithi. 



Rounsefell (1954) said that several 

 species, including "... the nnenhaden, 

 Brevoortia- ■ ." were "nnore or less 

 independent of the waters between the 

 mainland and the barrier islands." 



H. H. Hildebrand (1955) reported 

 eight specimens of B. gunteri from two 

 trawl hauls in 7-8 fathoms of water off 

 Punta Morros in the SE portion of the 

 Gulf of Campeche. They were taken 

 February 15, 1951. This is the south- 

 ernmost record for nnenhaden in the 

 Gulf. Hildebrand said he had never 

 heard of menhaden schools south of 

 the Rio Grande. 



20 



