COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28. No. 7 



8.9 percent by number of individuals. Invertebrates^ mostly nonedible crab species, squid, 

 sea-stars, and sand dollars, comprised 5.5 percent by weight of the samples. 



The leading four species --croaker, spot, gray sea trout, and butterfish--are edible spe- 

 cies accounting for 68.0 percent by weight of the sample. Among the eight remaining individ- 

 ually-named species four --sand perch, hogfish, puffer, and rock sea bass --are edible and 

 combined accounted for 8.6 percent of the weight of the trash fish and 6.1 percent of the number 

 of individuals. Among the 19 species, each accounting for less than 1.0 percent by weight of 

 all samples, eight are edible and contributed 1.9percent of the trashfish weight and 2.4 percent 

 by number of individuals; of the 46 species occurring but infrequently only three are edible 

 and it was estimated they contributed no raore than 0.1 percent of the trashfish weight and 0^3 

 percent by number of individuals. Thus, 78.6 percent of the totaltrashfishcatchby weight and 

 81.9 percent by number of individuals were comprised of edible fish species. 



Table 4 - Composition of 82 Industrial Fish Samples from 1964 Trawl Fishery in North Carolina, 





Showing by Species and Categories Number of Individuals Counted, Weight in Pounds, 





Percent Composition of Samples by Number of Individuals and Weight, and Average Weight of Individuals 1 



Species 



No. of 

 Ind. 



Wt. in 

 Lbs. 



% Comp. 

 by No. 



% Comp. 

 by Wt. 



Avg. Wt. 

 Ind. (Oz.) 



Common Name 



Scientific Name 



Croaker 



Micro pogon undulatus 



33,841 



3,262.2 



30.1 



30.3 



1.5 



Spot 



Leiostomus xanthurus 



19, 170 



1,742.2 



17.0 



16.2 



1.5 



3ray trout 



Cynoscion regalis 



7,241 



1,215.8 



6.4 



11.3 



2.7 



Butterfish 



Poronotus triacanthus 



22,062 



1,104.6 



19.6 



10.2 



0.8 



Sand perch 



Bairdiella chiysura 



3,184 



415.1 



2.8 



3.8 



1.1 



Longspine porgy 



Stenotomus caprinus 



4,866 



339.1 



4.3 



3.2 



1.1 



dogfish 



Orthopristis chrysopterus 



2,025 



215.1 



1.8 



2.0 



1.7 



Puffer 



Sphaeroides maculatus 



875 



181.1 



0.8 



1.7 



3.3 



Zlear-nose skate 



Raja eqlanteria 



176 



176.4 



0.2 



1.6 



16.0 



Filefish 



Monocanthus hispidus 



593 



132.6 



0.5 



1.2 



3.6 



Pinfish 



Laqodon rhomboides 



1,250 



128.7 



1.1 



1.2 



1.6 



Rock sea bass 



Centropristes philadelphicus 



807 



114.6 



0.7 



1.1 



2.3 



19 species, each accounting for less than 1.0% 













by weight ••.... 



6,405 



661.0 



5,7 



6.1 



^ 



46 species, occurring infrequently , ,. 



9,998 



495.3 



8.9 



4.6 



- 



Invertebrates .••••••.•.•.••••••• 



. 



596.7 



- 



5.5 



. 



Totals 



112,493 



10,780.5 



99.9 



100.0 



- 





Column 5 in table 4 provides an estimate of the average size of individual fish. Although 

 gray sea trout placed third among principal species by weight they were relatively large in- 

 dividuals (2.7 oz.) and ranked fourth in percentage of number of individuals. Butterfish, rank- 

 ing fourth in percentage of weight, was quite small in average size (0.8 oz.) and ranked third 

 in percentage by number of individuals. 



The small size of the individuals comprising the bulk of the catch indicates that the in- 

 dustrial fishery depends upon young-of -the -year fish. 



SPECIES COMPOSITION OF THE CATCH BY MONTH : The dominant species, croaker, 

 contributed quite consistently throughout the year with low contributions only in February 

 (8 percent) and April (5 percent) (table 5). Spot, the second ranking species, had low contri- 

 butions in three months. The next two species, gray sea trout and butterfish, contributed 

 heavily to the trash fish in only 6 months of the year or less. Other species made significant con- 

 tributions in only a few months and rock sea bass owed its appearance in the list to a 17-per- 

 cent contribution in February. Those 12 species account for a low of 48 percent of the catch 

 by weight in February and a high of 96 percent in April. In the warmer months when shrimp- 

 ing operations were supplying trash fish there was evidence of a decline in the amount of "all other 

 fish" andinthe same period (June through September) an increase was apparent in the amount 

 of " invertebrates" . 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



It appears to be characteristic for an industrial fish fishery to depend upon relatively 

 few species for the bulk of the catch by weight. Thus, in the industrial fish fisheries of New 



