16 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
$2,500,000 to the fishermen. Yellowtail contributed the largest 
poundage (15,000,000 pounds), closely followed by the winter 
flounder (13,500,000 pounds). The winter-flounder catch was the 
most valuable ($522,380) followed by the grey sole catch ($510,046). 
The greater part of the flounder catch comes from the inshore 
fishery. In 1937 less than one-third of the total catch was landed 
at. Boston, Gloucester, and Portland by the offshore fleet fishing out 
of those ports. Consequently, the.species of flounder are of great 
importance to the small-boat and shore fisheries, and during recent 
years have become of increasing interest to a growing army of sport 
fishermen, particularly from Cape Cod to Long Island waters. 
In 1938 the New York State Conservation Department undertook 
a survey of the marine fisheries in New York waters. Although the 
State survey ended in Dec. 1938, Suffolk County, which includes the 
major part of Long Island waters, provided funds to continue the 
work on their fisheries until June 1940. A report of the cooperative 
investigation appears on pp. 27-29 of this publication. 
In view of the importance of commercial and sport fishing for 
winter flounders south of Cape Cod, and the financial cooperation of 
New York State, it has been decided for the time being to concen- 
trate the work on the winter flounders in that area. It is hoped that 
facilities will be available in the future to extend the work to other 
areas and species. 
Numerous reports indicate a serious decline in abundance of the 
winter flounder. To obtain some measure of this decline, deter- 
minations of the total catch and catch per unit of effort over a long 
period of time must be made in order to determine the condition of 
the stock and fluctuations in the fishery. To discover the factors that 
influence fluctuations, such biological phases as racial composition 
of stocks, age and growth, migrations, success of spawning, ete., must 
be studied. 
Progress during 1939.—Better records of flounder landings are 
available for 1939 than ever before. through the action of Maine and 
Connecticut in installing a system for the collection and publication 
of monthly records of their fish catches. The coverage of several im- 
portant flounder ports in Massachusetts also was improved through 
the collection of records of landings by the Bureau’s Market News 
ugents. These developments are of great importance to the flounder 
work, since the greatest part of the catch of these species is landed 
at minor ports and is not covered by the Bureau’s records for Boston, 
Gloucester, and Portland. 
The excellent reports of landings at the three principal New 
England ports do not show the fish landed at “T” Wharf, Boston, 
which include large quantities of flounders. A temporary assistant 
was detailed to cover “T” Wharf for the month of February to de- 
termine the magnitude of the landings. The 4-week total reached 
248,000 pounds. According to information obtained from dealers, 
landings during the summer are considerably higher. Thus, it ap- 
pears that more than 3 million pounds of fish per year are not 
included in the Boston reports. 
Returns continued to come in from fish tagged in Great South Bay, 
Great Peconic Bay, Gardiners Bay, and Long Island Sound, in New 
York waters, as well as from fish tagged in Connecticut and Rhode 
