38 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28, No. 7 



(3) observe lobster habitat using a deep-sea 

 still picture camera. The areas of operation 

 were Cape Cod Bay, Stellwagen Banks, Jef- 

 freys Ledge, general area of George Bank, 

 Corsair, Lydonia, Veatch and Hudson Can- 

 yons, and South Long Island Slope. 





The Albatross IV , research vessel'of the U. S. Bureau of Com- 

 mercial Fisheries. 



FISHING OPERATIONS: Herring: Three 

 herring trawl sets lasting 1 hour each were 

 made at some stations in waters of 24 to 50 

 fathoms yielding a total of 4 bushels. The 

 herring obtained were from 19.5 to 32.5 cen- 

 timeters (about 8 to 13 inches) long. At an- 

 other lobster station a half bushel of herring 

 was obtained and those fish were from 24.4 

 to 30.1 centimeters (about 10 to 12 inches) 

 long. The majority of herring in the samples 

 were from the 1960 and 1961 year -classes. 

 Shipboard examination of gonadal condition 

 showed that the majority of the fish were in 

 late stage VIII of maturity. A total of 70 her- 

 ring blood samples was taken for analysis. 



Lobster: A totalof 29trawlsets wasmade 

 at the 5 major lobster stations covered. The 

 sets made in waters of 60 to 160 fathoms yielded 

 about 950 lobsters, 55 percent females and 45 

 percent males --6 3 of the females were berried. 

 The average weight of the entire catch was 4 

 pounds, and the average weight of legal size 

 lobsters was 5 pounds. The range in weight of 

 the entire catch was 0.1 to 22 pounds. The larg- 

 est catch occurred on Hudson Canyon where 1 Of 

 baskets of lobsters were obtained from a 1 -hour 

 tow. Large lobsters were prevalent on Lydon- 

 ia and Oceanographer Canyons, while short lob- 

 sters were prevalent in the catches from 

 Veatch' sand Hudson Canyons. A total of 42 lob- 

 sters was collected from the 1 6 lobster stations 

 fished on the South Long Island Slope and the 3 

 lobster stations fished in the Gulf of Maine. 

 The largest catch in that transect made at one 

 station yielded 13 lobsters. One lobster (5 



pounds) was collected from the Stellwagen 

 Bank station. Species of fish, other than her- 

 ring, collected during the cruise were had- 

 dock (30 bushels), American dab (2 bushels), 

 yellowtail (7 bushels), winter flounder (It 

 bushels), sand dab (1 bushel), alewives (4 

 bushel), cod (7 bushels), eel pout (5 bushels), 

 pollock (5 bushels), cusk (1 bushel), hake (1 

 bushel), sculpin (| bushel), dogfish (7,500 

 lbs.), goose fish (3,700 lbs.), halibut (4 pounds), 

 and grenadiers (4 bushel), 



CAMERA OPERATIONS: In all, 7 camera 

 "drops" were made during the cruise. Dur- 

 ing each drop 20 to 30 pictures of the ocean 

 bottom were taken, mostly in known lobster 

 grounds. The drops were made on the slopes 

 of Georges Bank and on the troughs, slopes 

 and runs of Lydonia, Veatch and Hudson Can- 

 yons. 



PLANKTON OPERATIONS: During the 

 cruise, 18 one -meter net plankton tows lasting 

 15 minutes each (5 minutes at 20 meters, 5 min- 

 utes at 10 meters, and 5 minutes at the sur- 

 face) were made. A total of 6,305 herring 

 larvae with an average length of 39 millime- 

 ters or about 1.5 inches (range 30 to 50 milli- 

 meters or 1.2 to 2.0 inches) were obtained. 

 Approximately 80 percent of the larvae were 

 from 3 stations. No larvae were obtained at 

 the other stations. 



HYDROGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS: Sea 

 bed drifters and drift bottles were released 

 at selected stations along the Continental 

 Shelf. At each trawl station bathythermo- 

 graph (BT) casts were made, salinities col- 

 lected, and weather observati ons recorded. 



Note: See Commercial Fisheries Review , January 1966 p. 41. 



North Pacific Fisheries Explorations 

 and Gear Development 



HAKE AND ANCHOVY 

 POPULATION SURVEY CONTINUED : 



M/V " John N. Cobb ," Cruise TTTApril 13- 

 May 4, 1966): A 3 -week pelagic survey for 

 northern anchovy ( Engraulis mordax ) in wa- 

 ters off the Washington coast between Cape 

 Flattery and the Columbia River mouth was 

 recently completed by the exploratory fishing 

 vessel John N. Cobb , operated by the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries, U. S. Department 

 of the Interior. Two days of the alloted time 



