APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
The gulf fishery began to expand in about 1947. Gulf 
landings show a trend since 1946 that is remarkably similar 
to that on the Atlantic which has generally been upward. 
The landings decreased in 1957 and 1958 and are unexplained 
aS are those in the 1967 season. The record catch of ‘gulf 
menhaden in 1971 exceeded the catch of any other single- 
species fishery in U.S. history. Since 1971 landings have 
declined but no trend is indicated. 
Since 1963 the gulf menhaden has supported the Nation's 
largest fishery and in recent years has accounted for about 
25 percent of the total landings by U.S. fishermen. Landings 
from 1963 through the 1975 season have exceeded those of the 
Atlantic menhaden, the original fishery, whose history goes 
back to colonial times. 
NMFS thinks much consideration should be given as to why 
the gulf landings, apparently peaking in about 1970, have 
shown no signs yet of declining, as in the Atlantic, in the 
face of a technical development of harvesting and processing 
at least equal to the Atlantic. Part of the reason is be- 
lieved to lie in imposing the increasing harvesting rates 
on a virgin stock, instead of on a stock already exposed to 
a large harvesting rate. Part of the reason may also lie in 
some rather overt "management" by the industry. The same 
industry that experienced economic disaster on the Atlantic 
coast appears to be closely watching and voluntarily limit- 
ing the effort. For example, after a tremendous increase in 
the catch in 1971 the industry reduced its effort the next 
year by 5 percent. Though part of the reason for a reduc- 
tion may have been induced by market, labor, or processing 
conditions, it indicates a flexible industry that is cau- 
tiously responsive to fluctuations in the gulf, which are more 
apparent because there are fewer age classes in the fishery. 
Biological research on the gulf menhaden resource and 
purse seine fishery by NMFS was started in 1964. The pur- 
pose of these studies was then, as today, to determine, as 
much as possible, the effects of man's fishing and catch on 
the well-being of the fish stock and to aid in the wise util- 
ization and conservation of this large renewable resource. 
To answer this question, a research program was designed that 
would plan for the systematic collecting and analyzing of 
information from the fishery and its operation which would 
permit reliable conclusions about the gulf menhaden and de- 
pendent fishery. 
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