Age and Size Composition of the Menhaden Catch Along the 



Atlantic Coast of the United States, 1961 



With a Brief Review of the Commercial Fishery 



By 



WILLIAM R. NICHOLSON and JOSEPH R. HICHAM, Jr. 



ABSTRACT 



The major features of the 1961 purse seine fishery for Atlantic menhaden, 

 Brevoortia tyrannus , are sumnnarized and briefly discussed. The catch in the 

 summer fishery (May to October) was 541,000 tons, 32,000 tons less than the meam 

 for the period 1955-60; in the North Carolina fall fishery (November to January), 

 78,000 tons, 3,000 tons more than the mean for the same period. An estimated 

 26,344 purse seine sets were made in the summer fishery and 1,258 in the fall 

 fishery. The catch per purse seine set was 21 tons in the summer fishery and 62 

 tons in the fall fishery. Age -3 fish (1958 year class) furnished the largest number 

 of fish in the catch and the greatest percentage of the catch by weight. Age-1 and 

 age-2 fish were generally larger, and age-3 fish generally snrialler, than in previous 

 years, while age-4 and older fish were generally of the same size. 



INTRODUCTION 



Purse seine catches of Atlantic menhaden, 

 Brevoortia tyrannus , along the Atlantic coast 

 of the United States are sampled each year for 

 age, size, and sex composition. Data also are 

 collected on other aspects of the fishery, in- 

 cluding the number of vessels employed, the 

 distribution of fishing, sind innportant changes 

 that occur. Since the inception of this work by 

 the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in 1955, 

 the results have been sunnmarized and dis- 

 cussed briefly in a series of annual reports. 

 This report, the seventh in the series, covers 

 the 1961 purse seine fishery and includes 

 comparable data from other years. As in 

 previous reports, the data for the summer 

 fishery are sumnnarized and reviewed by 

 four geographical areas (fig. 1); the North 

 Carolina fall fishery is treated separately. 



THE 1961 PURSE SEINE FISHERY 



The purse seine catch in 1961 was 619,000 

 tons, 28,000 tons less than the 6-year mean, 

 1955-60. In the sunnmer fishery (May to 

 October), 541,000 tons were landed; in the 



Note. — William R. Nicholson and Joseph R. Hlgham. 

 Jr., Fishery Biologists (Research), Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Beaufort, N.C. 



North Carolina fall fishery (November to 

 January), 78,000 tons (table 1). The summer 

 catch in all areas was below the 6-year mean, 

 but the fall catch off North Carolina was above 

 the 6-year mean. The largest percentage of the 

 catch was taken in the Middle Atlantic Area 

 (50 percent), the smallest in the South Atleintic 

 Area (8 percent). 



An estimated 27,602 sets were made in 

 1961, 26,344 in the summer fishery and 1,258 

 in the fall fishery. The nunnber was approxi- 

 mately 2 percent smaller than the 6-year 

 mean in the summer fishery, and approxi- 

 mately 35 percent smaller in the North Carolina 

 fall fishery. 



The catch per purse seine set in the sum- 

 n-ier fishery was 21 tons, identical with the 

 6-year nnean; in the North Carolina fall fishery 

 it was 62 tons, 24 tons greater than the mean 

 and 13 tons greater than the previous record 

 of 49 tons per set in 1960. 



South Atlantic Area 



Three vessels fished from Fernandina Beach, 

 Fla. The first landing was made on March 30. 

 Until May 15, all catches were nnade between 

 Jacksonville Beach and Fernandina Beach, Fla. 

 From May 17 to June 20, nearly all landings 

 were made between St. Catherines and Sapelo 

 Sounds, Ga. From June 22 until fishing stopped 

 on November 2, fishing again was concentrated 



