THE DESTRUCTION OF UNDERSIZED HADDOCK ON GEORGES BANK., 19l;7-'195l. 



The destruction of undersiZ'?.d haddock on Georges Bank has been going 

 on since the introduction of the otter trawl in 1905o This waste of small 

 fish has been of great concern to the industry and to ?onserTation:.sts for 

 many years., The Fish and Wlldj^^.fe Serslce has been studying this fishery- 

 intensively since 1931.- and has at 'raricus times urged the use of a larger- 

 meshed net in order to curb the destruction of haddock too small to market 

 (Herrington. 1932, 1935, 1936? Schuck, 19h7 , 19h8, Royoe and Schuckj 19^0) 

 but, since the banks lie in international waters, no legislation was ever 

 enacted. 



■Vn.th the organization in 195l of the International Commission for the 

 Northwest Atlantic Fisheries ^ it became possible to control the fisheries 

 of these banks^ and appropriate regulations are now being promulgated by 

 Canada srA the United States to set the minimum size of mesh allowable for 

 haddock fishing on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine (subarea 5 of the 

 Gcmmi-ssion) „ 



In connection with these regulations^ it is necessary to have accurate 

 information on the numbers and sizes of fish discarded at sea before and 

 after the regulations are applied, in order to assess the effectiveness of 

 the larger mesh in actual practice. 



Extensive observations (6l sea trips) were made by Bureau of Fisheries 

 obser^-'-ers (Alexander^ Moore^ and Kendall, 1915) in 1913-li;., and from data 

 collected it was possible to estimate L-hs quantities of haddock discarded 

 in these years, Herrington (1932^, 1935, 1936) estimated the quantities of 

 haddock discarded for the years 1930-32 by sampling at sea (20 trips) and 

 by pore intervdews of vessels. The present report extends these data to 

 include the results of port interna ews for the years 19ii7 to 1951 and the 

 samplings at sea for the year 195l. 



Tlie success of this study has been made possible by the wholehearted 

 cooperation of the fishing industry. We wish to express our' appreciation 

 to all the fishermen interviewed and especially to the crews of the trawlers 

 on which the observers shipped. An extra man on board may interfere with 

 normal operations, but^he observers have found the fishermen most willing 

 to afford them an opportunity to collect the necessary data. The boat owners 

 have been very cooperative in permitting the observers tc sail on these trips, 



Howard A. Schuck was in charge of haddock research when these studies 

 were conducted. Credit is due nim for supervising the sanpling-at-sea 

 program during its initial stages. The following persons collected data at 

 sea? John R. Clark^ Sterling L. Cogswell, David F. Hamraack.i George F, Kelly., 

 John Fo Shea^ and the author. Port Interi'lcws were conducced by James J. 

 Miggins and I>a%Hd F. Haramack, Betty Bo Murray and Sterling L, Cogswell 

 assisted in the tabulation of the data. 



