PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1926 065 
group. Among the shore fishes I have included all species usually taken by in- 
shore gear, such as pound nets, traps, weirs, haul seines, hook and line, and 
gill nets operated in inshore waters. Thus, the sea herring, which has some 
claims for inclusion among the pelagic fishes, was put into the shore: group 
because it is taken mostly in weirs; and pollock, which is regularly taken 
among the demersal fishes, has also been included with the shore group because 
by far the largest part of the catch comes from inshore waters. Other species 
of importance in this group are squeteague, mullet, croaker, Spot, butterfish, 
drum, king whiting, scup, and whiting (silver hake). Among the demersal 

MILLIONS OF PouNDs 
Fic. 4.—Relative size of the menhaden catch 
fishes I have included cod, haddock, hake, halibut, flounders, snappers, groupers, 
ete. Among the pelagic fishes I have included all those taken primarily in off- 
shore surface waters by such gears as purse seines, drift gill nets, and harpoons. 
These are menhaden, mackevel, swordfish, ete. 
By consulting Figure 6 we may follow the changes in yield in these various 
groups. As might be expected. the group of pelagic fishes shows wide fluctua- 
tions from 340,000,000 to 930,000,000 pounds in various years. It also has 
had a decided upward trend since 1908. The demersal fishes aS a group have 
had a fairly constant vield since 1890. The shore fishes reached a peak yield 
MILLIONS OF POUNDS 
50 
SQUETEAGUES 
FLOUNDERS 
MACKEREL 
CROAKERS 
HAKE 
SNAPPERS & GROUPERS| 
SHAD 
WHITING 
PoLLocK 


BiLVEFISH 

HALIBUT 







Fic. 5.—Relative quantities of various species of fish (excepting menhaden) taken 
annually on the Atlantic coast 
in 1902 but have declined since. The anadromous fishes reached their peak yield 
prior to 1897, but have since then declined more severely than the shore fishes. 
There seems to be an orderly coherence in these trends when considered in 
terms of the accessibility to the fishermen of the various groups. The least 
accessible are the offshore surface fishes, which roam over relatively large 
areas and may be found only by much cruising in search of the wandering 
schools. and are caught with difficulty when found. These show only a tre- 
mendous fluctuation in yield and the trend, if any may be distinguished, seems 
upward. Next are the demersal fishes, found over extensive offshore areas 
