APPENDIX III APPENDIX sila 
The biological research program on Atlantic menhaden 
by NMFS and its predecessor agencies began in 1955. Major 
questions concerning the species in landings, population 
composition and migrations, recruitment patterns, fecundity, 
age and size of fish in landings, growth, and estimates of 
natural and fishing mortalities, and effects of fishing have 
been answered. These reports and analyses form the necessary 
components to the present store of knowledge and understand- 
ing of the resource and fishery. 
NMFS points out that since the resource appears to be 
almost constantly changing and responding to fishing and to 
natural environmental changes, continued research on the 
fishery is warranted and should prove fruitful. Future re- 
search, however, will generally contribute refinements to 
the present understanding. 
The leading Atlantic Coast States for menhaden landings 
before 1972 were New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina. 
Virginia accounted for about half or more of the landings. 
Major Atlantic menhaden ports are: 
Middle Atlantic -- Port Monmouth, New Jersey 
Chesapeake Bay -- Readville, Virginia 
South Atlantic -- Beaufort, North Carolina 
Southport, North Carolina 
Fernandina Beach, Florida 
Current harvest in the gulf 
Landings of gulf menhaden in the 1975 fishing season 
amounted to 1,196,977,000 pounds. This catch ranks as the 
fourth largest ever made in the gulf fishery, surpassed only 
by ehe L970, Ovi sand 97/4 catches. 
NMFS had predicted a 1975 catch of 1,441,808,400 pounds 
a 20-percent overstatement of the actual. Poor fishing 
weather, moderate fish abundance, and changes in menhaden 
distribution along the northern gulf coast in 1975 contribu- 
ted to a moderate decline in landings over 1974. 
In 1973 NMFS underestimated the landings by 2 percent 
and in 1974 overestimated the landings by 1 percent. 
Most of the menhaden catch is landed in LouiSiana. Of 
the total menhaden landed in the Gulf States from 1948 
through 1975, over 70 percent were landed in Louisiana. 
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