of the catch. The work constitutes the 

 primary phase of an investigation aimed 

 at determining the effects of fishing 

 and natural factors on the menhaden 

 resource. 



This report includes a review of 

 the 1957 purse-seine fishery; meas- 

 ures of total catch, fishing effort, and 

 catch per unit of effort, together with 

 information on the geographical dis- 

 tribution of fishing effort; sunnmary 

 data on the number, age, length, weight, 

 and sex of Atlantic menhaden (Breyoo?'- 

 tia tyr annus) caught by purse seines in 

 1957; and a brief discussion of the 

 observations. The review of fishing 

 activities and summaries of data per- 

 taining to the "summer" fishery are 

 referred to the four geographical areas 



shown in figure 1; the North Carolina 

 "fall" fishery is treated separately. 



The continued cooperation of men- 

 haden reduction plant owners and oper- 

 ators who provided space and facilities 

 for processing of the catch samples 

 and furnished records of vessel land- 

 ings is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks 

 are due to the vessel captains and 

 pilots who furnished logbooks of their 

 daily fishing activities; without these 

 records, most of the information on the 

 location juid annount of fishing would 

 have been lacking. 



Catch samples were obtained by 

 temporary field assistants stationed 

 at the various reduction plant loca- 

 tions. Joseph R. Higham was respon- 

 sible for the age determinations and 

 assisted in the supervision of the 

 catch-sampling program. George 

 Rawlings compiled the fishing effort 

 data from vessel log records. Mary K. 

 Hancock was responsible for the com- 

 pilation of the biostatistical data and 

 assisted in their analysis. 



THE 1957 PURSE-SEINE FISHERY 



The 1957 purse-seine catch of 

 Atlantic menhaden, 63 2,000 tons, was 

 the smallest produced in the past 3 

 years (table 1)'; 576,000 tons were 

 taken in the "summer" fishery (late 

 March to mid-October) and 56,000 tons 

 in the North Carolina "fall" fishery 

 (mid-November to mid- January 1958).' 

 In the summer fishery, catches were 



Figure 1. — Areas used in summarizing Atlantic menhaden 

 catch data. 



'The pound-net catch of Atlantic menhaden in 1957 

 amounted to about 25,000 tons; miscellaneous gears, in- 

 cluding gill nets, haul seines, fyke nets, and oner trawls, 

 accounted for an additional 2,000 tons. Because of the 

 lack of adetpiate statistics, the pound-net fishery was not 

 discussed as in previous reports in this series. 



'For convenience, the activities of the menhaden 

 purse-seine fishery have been grouped into two arbitrary 

 time periods. The "summer" fishery or season is con- 

 sidered to commence with the appearance of schools in 

 the surface waters along the coast, generally, sometime 

 between April and June and terminates with their dis- 

 appearance from the surface waters, usually in October. 

 The "fall" fishery or season begins with the reappearance 

 of large, migrating schools in the surface waters off 

 Cape Hatteras, N. C., in November and terminates when 

 the fish vanish off Cape Fear, N. C, in late December or 

 early January. 



