PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1938 21 
of catch-record receipts for the 21 years from 1918-1938 have all been 
sorted by month according to vessel and type of fishing gear, and 
filed so as to be readily accessible. 
Using these records of landings in conjunction with the informa- 
tion obtained at Boston from interviews with fishing vessel captains, 
the relative abundance is being calculated for each species for the 
7-year period 1932-38 from records of selected groups of otter traw- 
lers. The procedure followed by the haddock investigation of 
subtracting running time of the vessel to and from the fishing banks, 
as well as time lost by bad weather, etc., in order to calculate the 
time spent in fishing on each bank, has been retained. 
In order, however, to take care of the differences in the depth 
habitat of the various species, the banks have been divided into three 
depth zones, namely: Shallow, 0-80 fathoms; medium, 31-60 
fathoms; and deep, over 60 fathoms. The allocation of catches into 
depth zones has been simplified by using the 10-minute unit area rec- 
tangles mentioned above. 
The increased fishing for rosefish and gray sole in the deep zone 
within the past 3 years, the inauguration of depth zones, and the 
analysis of additional data concerning fishing grounds obtained since 
1936, made it advisable to revise the statistical subarea boundaries 
in International Areas XXI and XXII. These were reoutlined on 
the basis of 39,632 days’ fishing, in the various unit areas. Three 
subareas were eliminated from Area XXII by amalgamation and 
many minor adjustments were made in an attempt to simplify the 
analysis of the data by adjusting the boundary lines to the natural 
fishing concentrations. The handling of this large mass of data has 
been simplified by the use of cards which permits wide latitude in 
the grouping of areas or depths, and is invaluable in the assembling 
of the material for correlations. 
The current analysis of these data, starting January 1, 1939, will 
be tabulated by the punch-card system that has been used for some 
years by the Bureau in the preparation of the monthly bulletin on 
the landings at Boston, Gloucester, and Portland by type of gear, 
species, and fishing bank. The punch card has been revised and the 
depth zone and calculated fishing time added to the information pre- 
viously punched. Mr. Bearse interviews the vessel captains, and, by 
means of these interviews, supplies the Division of Fishery Indus- 
tries’ agent with these additional data. By this means it will be 
possible to obtain current data on abundance, which, despite its use- 
fulness, is available for very few fisheries. 
Total catch by areas ——A knowledge of the relative annual abund- 
ance does not permit any estimate of the productive capacity of a 
stock of fish without information on the total catch. 
The landings of fishing vessels of over 5 net tons at Portland, 
Gloucester, and Boston (except for Boston landings at T Wharf) 
are shown both by type of gear used and by the subareas (fishing 
banks) where caught, in the monthly bulletin of the Division of 
Fishery Industries. However, these comprise but 65 percent of the 
New England groundfish landings. 
The only records of total catch available for New England have 
been those of the Bureau’s annual canvass; but, besides not being 
taken in some years, they cannot achieve a high degree of accuracy 
162186—39——_4 
