During the second quarter of regulation, October to Deceinber 1953, 

 the incoming 19^2 year class became an important part of the fishery al- 

 though the 19^0 year class retained its dominance (table h and fig, ii) , 

 Discard during this quarter was confined entirely to the incoming year class. 

 As noted in the length frequency curves, all of the waste was by the small- 

 mesh vessels^ the large-mesh vessels marketed all haddock caught. The dis- 

 card by small-mesh vessels was about 6,000 fish per trip. 



As in the previous quarter, the large-mesh vessels caught proportionatelj'- 

 fewer of the smaller marketable fish but more larger ones with the result 

 that the landings per trip of the large-mesh vessels were greater than those 

 of the other group of boats. The large-mesh vessels caught fewer fish but 

 landed more pounds of fish since the average weight of the fish caught was 

 greater (table 7) . 



This direct comparison of landings of the two groups of vessels is not 

 conclusive, as it takes no account of differences in the sizes and effi- 

 ciencies of the vessels concerned. These factors can be largely eliminated 

 by comparing each group's landings during this quarter with its landings in 

 the corresponding quarter of the previous year and then comparing the changes 

 in landings of the one .group with that of the other. Such a comparison is 

 presented in table 8.£/ It will be noted that the landings of haddock per 

 trip by the group of sraall-mesh vessels dropped about 22 percent while that 

 of the large-mesh vessels dropped only about 10 percenx.. It is also of 

 interest to note that the drop in landings of all groundfish showed a similar 

 difference. 



The third quarter of regulation, January to March 1951-1, was character- 

 ized by an abundance of haddock in two dominant year classes, 1950 and 1952 

 (table 5 and fig. 5). The availability of the 1952 year class had increased 

 so that large quantities were taken by the small-mesh vessels. Most of these, 

 however, were discarded at sea. Although more fish per trip were discarded 

 by small-mesh vessels during this quarter than any quarter of this study per- 

 iod, (over 7,500 per trip) there was no discard by the vessels using the 

 regulation large mesh (table 7). As in previous quarters, the large-mesh 

 vessels caught fewer fish but landed more pounds per trip than did the small- 

 mesh vessels. When the 195U landings of the two groups are compared with 

 those for the s ame quarter in 1953 (table 8), it is noted that neither group 

 enjoyed an advantage except that large-mesh vessels appeared to fare better 

 in regard to total groundfish. 



Conditions changed in the fourth quarter of regulation, April to June 

 195U. The 1952 year class was fully recruited and dominated the catch to 

 an extreme degree. A glance at the length frequency curves for this quarter 

 (fig. 6) shows prominent modes at about IiO cm. These modes represent this 

 1952 year class of ^ 2 -year-old fish. 



2/' This comparison was not made for the first quarter of regulation because 

 of insufficient numbers of vessels that had used one size of net cor.sis=- 

 tently throughout the quarter. 



