20 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
but 4,000,000 pounds a year, but in 1936-88 it averaged over 60,000,000 
pounds. The rosefish 1 is now sold thr oughout the Midwest and South 
as frozen fillets of “ocean perch.” Another factor has been the in- 
creased dependence of the vessels on the banks off the Nova Scotian 
coast. Even if these banks can stand considerably more fishing, 
their distance from port means greatly increased cost of production. 
In the past few years there has been a great increase in the amount 
of trawling in deeper water, out to the 100-fathom curve and beyond, 
because of the demand for rosefish and gray sole. Since most of the 
available banks and most of the commercially abundant species are 
now being fished, it becomes increasingly clear that the future of this 
huge fishery depends upon utilizing ‘the present banks and species 
to the best ‘advantage. 
The main problem then is to assess the three variables, total catch, 
fishing effort, and abundance, in order to determine for ‘each species 
whether it can yield larger quantities or whether it has already 
reached the point where an increase in yield will give a larger pro- 
duction only at the expense of the future. 
For this task the investigation has access to the following records: 
The poundages landed by species by each vessel for each trip from 
1918 to date at Portland, Gloucester, and Boston (except for Boston 
landings at T Wharf) are available. For the vessels of over 50 
gross tons, the actual weighed-out weights are given, but for the 
smaller vessels (5 net to 50. gross tons) the Boston records and some 
of the other records are hailed weights (i. e., estimates of the catch 
made by the captain when the trip is put up for sale at auction.) 
Since 1928, each slip also shows the type of gear the vessel employed 
in making the catch. 
The record of the total annual catch by species of each fishing 
vessel (i. e., boat over 5 net tons) In New England since 1928 has 
been made available through the cooperation of the Division of Fish- 
ery Industries. These records are obtained by canvassing the fisher- 
men themselves once a year to determine their catch. These records 
also show the gear used by each vessel, and, when more than one 
type is used, it shows the amount of each species caught by each 
type. 
eit 1932, the haddock investigation has maintained a man at the 
Boston Fish Pier to interview the captain of each groundfish vessel, 
of over 50 gross tons, each time the vessel lands. “These interviews 
give the day and hour of departure from and arrival at the pier, the 
locations fished by rectangles covering 10 minutes of latitude and 10 
minutes of longitude, the “depth fished, the proportion of the fishing 
time spent on each bank, and the proportion of the fish caught on 
each bank. 
Analysis of abundance —The methods used in analyzing these rec- 
ords for the haddock investigation are in general applicable to the 
groundfish analysis (which will in the future include the portion of 
the haddock investigation dealing with abundance), but had to un- 
dergo certain modifications on account of the tremendous mass of data 
to be handled and the differences in habits between the various species 
to be studied. 
Through a project of the Works Progress Administration it was 
possible to obtain several needed assistants. The large accumulations 
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