Biological Investigations of Purse Seine Fishery 

 for Atlantic Menhaden 



By 



KENNETH A. HENRY 



ABSTRACT 



After record catches in 1961 and 1962 of about 2.3 billion pounds of menhaden 

 ( Brevoortia spp.). the U.S. catch declined to about 1.5 billion pounds in 1964. Most 

 of the decrease was in the North Atlantic and Middle Atlantic areas. Since about 

 1940, catches have increased, in general, with increased fishing intensities. In 

 1963 and 1964, however, the catch per unit of effort (a standard vessel day) declined 

 markedly. It fell from 164,000 pounds in 1962 to 110,000 in 1964 in the North Atlantic 

 Area, and from 156,000 pounds in 1962 to 74,000 in 1964 in the Middle Atlantic Area. 

 The increased fishing intensities and lack of older fish have caused major changes 

 in the average age of the fish and area of catch. The strong 1958 year class, which 

 was the main support of the fishery for several years, is no longer abundant; over 

 90 percent of the fish now caught are less than 3 years old. In 1964, for the first time 

 since 1940, more menhaden were caught in the Chesapeake Bay Area than in any 

 other area of the Atlantic fishery. Estimates of abundance of juvenile Atlantic 

 menhaden based on trawling, haul seining, marking and recovery, and aerial obser- 

 vations indicate that the 1964 year class may not be as strong as that of 1963. 



INTRODUCTION 



More pounds of menhadens ( Brevoortia spp.) 

 than of any other species are caught annually 

 by U.S. fishermen. After record catches in 

 1961 and 1962 of about 2.3 billion pounds 

 from the combined Atlantic and Gulf coast 

 fisheries, the catch declined to about 1.8 

 billion pounds in 1963 and to about 1.5 billion 

 in 1964 1 (figure 1). Most of the decrease was in 

 the Atlantic coast fishery, where the catch 

 declined from 1.3 billion pounds in 1962 to 

 0.6 billion in 1964. 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries began 

 its current research on the Atlantic menhaden, 

 B_. tyrannus , in 1955. Money and personnel 

 became available in 1964 to expand the studies 

 to the Gulf, where a different species, B. 

 patronus, apparently constitutes most of the 

 catch. Since a backlog of fishery and biological 

 data is not available for the Gulf fishery, this 



Note:~Kenneth A. Henry, Director, Bureau of Commer- 

 cial Fisheries, Biological Laboratory, Beaufort, N.C. 



iGulf of Mexico landings for 1942-62 from "Fishery 

 Statistics of the United States," a series of U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service, Statistical Digests by A. W. Ander- 

 son, C. H. Lyles, C. E. Peterson, andE. A. Power; Atlan- 

 tic landings for 1940-64 and Gulf of Mexico landings for 

 1963 and 1964 are from menhaden reduction plant records. 



report is limited principally to the Atlantic 

 fishery. 



Some of the major objectives of the men- 

 haden investigations are to examine fluctua- 

 tions in the catch, determine their cause, and, 

 if possible, predict their occurrence. This 

 report reviews the recent history of the At- 

 lantic menhaden fishery and points out some 

 of the more important current condition of 

 the stocks. 



THE FISHERY 



The Atlantic menhaden fishery is prin- 

 cipally a purse seine fishery that ranges from 

 New England to Florida, and is divided into 

 four geographic areas (figure 2). In addition 

 to a summer fishery that generally extends 

 from May to October, there is a fall fishery 

 off North Carolina from November to Jan- 

 uary. Apparently because of migrations — in 

 general, northward earlier in the year and 

 southward later, at least for the older fish-- 

 the summer fishery begins somewhat later 

 in the northern areas. Publications that de- 

 scribe the fishery and the biology of the 

 species in more detail are by June (1958, 

 1961), Reintjes (1962), Roithmayr (1963), 

 Sutherland (1963), Nicholson and Higham 

 (1964), and Higham and Nicholson (1964). 



