PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1937 19 



that the 1938 survey may benefit by the experience of Bureau investi- 

 gators in this area. 



Investigations were conducted b}^ the Middle and South Atlantic 

 staff' during 1937 as follows : 



^queteaguc. — Two thousand two hundred squeteague, mostly year- 

 lings, were tagged in June and early July in Pamlico Sound, N. C. 

 This experiment was planned to test the view, suggested by scale 

 studies and other observations, that the unmarketable yearlings de- 

 stroyed in Pamlico Sound in the early summer include many in- 

 dividuals spawned the previous year inmore northern waters which, 

 if spared, would migrate northward in midsummer. Contrary to 

 expectations, all of the reca])tures in- 1937 were made locally in 

 Pamlico Sound. This was doubtless caused by the unusually mild 

 winter. Young squeteague s]:)awned in northern localities were not- 

 driven as far south as usual during the winter but struck in to the 

 shores in spring much farther north. Unprecedented numbers of 

 3'earling squeteague were observed in the spring and summer in Nevp- 

 York and the scales of the Pamlico Sound yearlings indicated that 

 few. if any, fish of northern origin were present. This is in marked 

 contrast to the early summer of 1935 when about one-third of the 

 Pamlico Sound yearlings were fouiul to be of northern origin. This 

 tagging experiment will be repeated following a more nearly normal 

 winter. 



Scup. — Contiiuied large catches by both winter and summer fish- 

 eries indicate that the series of successful spawning seasons which 

 began in 1927 are still continuing. The wasteful practice of destroy- 

 ing large numbers of small scup which persists will accentuate the 

 decline which may be ex]iected to occur when this series is broken. 



Progress on jNIr. Neville's report on this species was interrupted by 

 additional duties arising from change of headquarters from Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., to College Park. ]Md. 



^yintep trawl -fishery. — Mr. Neville spent the greater part of 

 January, February, and ]March 1937 aboard trawlers engaged in 

 this fishery. His observations indicate that the problem of devising 

 savings gear to spare small fish now wasted by the fishery is so com- 

 plex that extended experiments will be required. A research vessel 

 equipped for trawlino- or sufficient funds for charter of a commercial 

 trawler will be required before this work can be undertaken. 



^V inter founder. — This species is the; basis of a commercial fishery 

 in New York and sf)uthern New England and of an important angling 

 fishery in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. Tagging ex- 

 periments were made in Great South Bay, New York, and in various 

 localities in the vicinity of Narragansett Bay, R. I., to measure the 

 intensity of the fishery and the distribution of the strain between 

 sport and commercial fisheries, and also to determine whether the 

 migrations of these fish are sufficiently limited that conservation 

 regulations by individual States would be practicable. Rhode Island 

 scientists cooperated in the Narragansett Bay experiments. Of the 

 1.71'< flounders tagged during the hist week in A])ril 1937, in Great 

 South Bay, 301. or 18.6 percent had been recaptured up to January 

 1, 1938. About four-fifths of the tagged fish recaptured were taken 

 by anglers and about one-fifth by commercial fishermen. Of the 998 

 winter flounders tagged in Rhode Island, 128, or 12.8 percent, Avere 

 recaptured in 1937. Of those reca]5tured. about three-fifths were 



