AGE AND SIZE COMPOSITION OF THE MENHADEN 



CATCH ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST OF THE 



UNITED STATES, 1957 



WITH A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE COMMERCIAL FISHERY 



by 

 Fred C. June 



ABSTRACT 



The 1957 purse -seine catch of Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia 

 tyrannus) amounted to 632,000 tons, 91 percent of which was taken in 

 the "summer" fishery. Landings in the Middle Atlantic Area ac- 

 counted for the greatest share (54 percent) of the total for the coast. 

 Total fishing effort (31,600 sets) was the highest in 3 years, and 

 average catch per unit of effort amounted to 20 tons per set as com- 

 pared with 26 tons in 1955 and 1956. 



Samples from the catches showed that the 1955 and 1956 year 

 classes (fish of ages 2 and 1) were about equally represented and 

 together constituted over four-fifths of the total catch of 3.6 billion 

 fish. The 1956 year class (age-1 fish) provided nnost of the catch in 

 the South Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay Areas; the 1955 year class 

 (age-2 fish), accounted for the greatest share of the catch in the Mid- 

 dle and North Atlantic Areas; and the 1957 year class (age-0 fish) 

 contributed the greatest number of fish to the fall catch off the coast 

 of North Carolina. Fish of the dominant age groups in the summer 

 catches in the various areas were shorter in length and lighter in 

 weight than those of the same ages in the previous 2 years. Varia- 

 tions in the contributions of recent year classes are discussed. 



INTRODUCTION 



This is the third in a series of 

 reports which sunnmarizes data result- 

 ing from an annual catch-sampling pro- 

 gram conducted by the Bureau of Com- 

 mercial Fisheries on the menhaden 



Note.- -Fred C. June, Fishery Research Biologist, 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, U. S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, Beaufort, North Carolina. 



stocks' along the Atlantic coast of the 

 United States. The Gulf menhaden fish- 

 ery is not treated in this paper. The 

 immediate objective of the catch- 

 sampling program is to furnish data 

 for measuring variations in composition 



*A stock, as used in this report, is defined as a group 

 of fish belonging to a single species which occurs in a 

 fishable concentration in a given area of the coast during 

 a given period of the year. 



