320 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 
is expected in Maryland and North Carolina. A survey of Chesapeake 
Bay and the coastal regions from Virginia to southern New England 
showed that important striped bass spawning grounds are confined to 
the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and the 
lower Hudson River. According to previous surveys the lower Chesa- 
peake Bay and the sounds and coastal rivers of North Carolina are 
also productive areas. These observations suggest that fishing for 
striped bass along the coasts of New Jersey, Long Island, and southern 
New England is maintained chiefly by migration of fish spawned in 
other areas. Investigations during the year provided further support 
for the view that production and survival of striped bass are to a 
large extent independent of the number of spawners; hence regulatory 
measures to increase the spawning stock are not of primary importance 
in the conservation of this species. 
Long Island cooperative investigation—Public interest aroused by 
the cooperative study in which the Bureau of Fisheries participated 
with the New York Conservation Department, as reported last year, 
caused the Boards of Supervisors of Suffolk County, and later of 
Nassau County, Long Island, to contribute funds for a similar cooper- 
ative study of local fishery problems. The investigation of the Suffolk 
County fisheries has been under way throughout the fiscal year 1940; 
that of Nassau County fisheries since May 20,.1940. 
Tt has been learned that the flounder populations in different regions 
of Suffolk County are independent, so that measures to improve fishing 
conditions can be applied directly to individual areas. With the 
cooperation of pound-net fishermen, methods have been worked out for 
releasing a large percentage of small sizes of several species of fish 
taken in nets, thus permitting these young fish to reach a size at which 
they will be of greater value to commercial fishermen and anglers. The 
survey has disclosed also that the sport fisheries account for a con- 
siderable percentage of the total catch of several important species. 
Shrimp investigations.—Because of the constantly increasing drain 
on the supply of shrimp, which is the most valuable fishery product 
south of Virginia, it has long been considered important to know 
whether or not there is a reserve supply available beyond the range 
of the present commercial fishery. This question has now been an- 
swered in the negative through the offshore explorations of the vessel 
Pelican in the Gulf of Mexico and along the South Atlantic coast 
from Fort Pierce, Fla., to Cape Hatteras, N.C. No concentrations of 
shrimp were found in either area outside the waters now being ex- 
ploited, a fact which emphasizes the importance of measures recom- 
mended for the protection of the supply in inshore waters. 
Tagging of shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico during the past year es- 
tablished the fact that here, as on the South Atlantic coast, the shrimp 
