APPENDiIGxXe ssi APPENDIX III 
Table I 
Commercial Atlantic Groundfish 
Landings (except Florida) (note a) 
Landings 
Year (pounds) Value 
(millions) 
1960 529.8 SSie0 
1965 AW) D 53) 37) 5G 
1970 BLOG 7 Sieh oul 
1972 Pi AVANT] 
1973 29259 48.6 
1974 (note b) PU SY HO 9 
1975 (note b) 285.1 64.8 
*Includes landings of cod, cusk, flounders, haddock, red and 
white hake, ocean perch, pollock, and silver hake (whiting). 
Dbreliminary data. 
Large foreign fishing fleets appeared off the New England 
coast in the early 1960s, placing heavy fishing pressure on 
groundfish stocks. In addition to adversely affecting the 
economic position of U.S. fishermen by being intense competi- 
tors, foreign fleets have caused or contributed to the de- 
pletion of species such as haddock and yellowtail flounder 
stocks and reduced abundance in stocks of cod, ocean perch 
and lower value species such as red hake and silver hake. 
Overall groundfish abundance off the New England coast is 
estimated to have declined 45 percent between 1963 and 1972. 
Extremely large haddock catches were made on Georges Bank in 
1965, primarily by the Soviet Union. Total haddock catches 
peaked in 1965 at about 330 million pounds then fell to 
less than 12 million pounds in 1973. 
The foreign catch of major groundfish species off the 
Atlantic coast from Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, 
was 1.1 billion pounds or 71 percent of the total in 1965. 
Total catch quotas and country allocations, size limits, mesh 
regulations, and area closures have improved attempts to con- 
trol fishing effort during the 1970s and have helped to re- 
duce foreign catches of popular groundfish species such as 
cod and flounders. While foreign catches have declined 
since 1965, in most years they have exceeded 50 percent of 
total groundfish caught. For example, table 2 shows that in 
1974, 60 percent of the total catch of major groundfish 
species in this area was made by foreign nations. Foreign 
fleets have not caught large quantities of groundfish off 
the South Atlantic coast. 
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