TABLE 1.— Dates and areas iishe'd on the commercial trips observed in 1951 



Trip 



Number 



Date 



Jane 6-iIi 



Areas fished on Georges Bank 



Northern Edge 



Southeast Part 



East side South Channel 



Annual 



The average quantity discarded annually during the 5-year period was 



over U 1/2 million pounds^ representing over 6 percent of the catch. In 

 terms of numbers this quantity represented over 6 million individual fish 

 or over I6 percent of the catcho 



The greatest quantity discarded during this period was reported in 

 19h7 , when almost 11 percent of the total catch, by weight, was discarded 



at sea^ this was equivalent to discarding 25 percent of the haddock caught, 

 The least discard during this period was in 195l, when about h percent of 

 the catch, by weight, was discarded^ this amounted to 10 percent of the 

 fish caught. The years 19U8=50 were intermediate. 



Seasonal 



The destruction of baby haddock is definitely seasonal, as can be 

 seen by a comparison of the monthly records (table 2 and fig. 5). Dis- 

 cards usually increased rapidly after June and declined after October. 



November to May were 

 Areas 



Usually pe.r'rtods of relaisively low destructicr.i 



Discard by area was summarized by plotting the amounts of discard 

 by units of 10' latitude by IC longitude. The localities where haddock 

 were discarded in the average year for the period 19^7 to 195l are snown 

 in figure 6. The areas of greatest discard were the Northern Edge and 



11 



