COMiiEHCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol.. 13, 



I9i4.9, the trend during the latter part of the year was 

 increases reported from Ivjarch 1949 to Kay 1950. 



a reversal of the steady 



SPECIES COMPOSITION OF THE LANDINGS 



I examined samples of the landings at Provincetown and at New Bedford in Massa- 

 chusetts and at Point Judith in Rhode Island 



Thirteen catches were sampled at New Bedford, 5 at Provincetown, and U at Point 

 Judith by examining several baskets of fish as unloading progressed. Sorting each 



sample by species, and recording the 

 number of species and the weight of 

 each sample, it vras found that the 

 samples taken weighed from 100 to 

 500 pounds, depending on the size of 

 the load and on the amount of time 

 available to return the fish in time 

 to be loaded on the truck. Fisher- 

 men and dealers gave excellent co- 

 operation during all sampling opera- 

 tions. 



The practice of taking baskets 

 at intervals during the unloading 

 of a vessel revealed, for the most 

 part, that the same species appeared 

 in successive baskets, but the rela- 

 tive numbers of a given species varied 

 considerably between baskets compris- 

 ing the sample. The species compo- 

 sition indicated by a given sample, 

 therefore, is a reliable index of the 

 composition of a vessel's load, but 

 the relative numbers of each species, 

 determined by combining the numbers 

 in each basket, are at best only 

 rough estimates of the actual nuiri- 

 bers of each species present in the 

 load. Tnus, the species composition 



