303 
Abstract .—Northern searobins, 
Prionotus carolinus, and striped sea- 
robins, P. evolans, are commonly taken 
in bottom trawl, pound-net, and hook- 
and-line fisheries of the temperate, 
western North Atlantic. Seasonal move- 
ments, size structure, and interannual 
variations in population size of both 
species were examined with data from 
three fishery-independent trawl sur- 
veys. Geographic distributions of both 
species overlapped year-round, but on 
average, northern searobins were found 
in colder, deeper water than were 
striped searobins. Northern searobins 
were found north and east of Cape Cod 
during the warmest months and north- 
east of Hudson Canyon during the cold- 
est months, whereas striped searobins 
were rarely found in these regions dur- 
ing these seasons. Furthermore, north- 
ern searobins moved north and near- 
shore earlier in spring and left these 
habitats earlier in autumn. Modal size 
of adult northern searobins was gener- 
ally between 17 and 21 cm total length, 
about 5 cm shorter than that of adult 
striped searobins. Overall, northern 
searobins were collected more fre- 
quently and were more numerous than 
striped searobins. Because they were 
smaller and occurred in cooler waters, 
however, they were not dominant by 
weight in coastal habitats during au- 
tumn. During the past 25-30 years, the 
annual population size of both species 
has varied by an order of magnitude, 
fluctuating without any clear trend. 
Although seasonally abundant in 
coastal and continental shelf waters, 
searobins, because of their small size 
in relation to other species, are usually 
discarded and contribute little to land- 
ings from the mid-Atlantic states. 
Manuscript accepted 13 August 1997. 
Fishery Bulletin 96:303-314 ( 1998). 
Interspecific comparisons of searobin 
[Prionotus spp.) movements, 
size structure, and abundance in 
the temperate western North Atlantic 
Richard S. McBride 
Marine Field Station, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences 
Rutgers University 
132 Great Bay Blvd., Tuckerton, New Jersey 08087 
Present address: Florida Marine Research Institute 
1 00 Eighth Avenue S.E. 
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701-5095 
E-mail address: mcbride_r@harpo.dep. state. fl. us 
Joseph B. O'Gorman 
Northeast Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 
Kenneth W. Able 
Marine Field Station, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences 
Rutgers University 
132 Great Bay Blvd., Tuckerton, New Jersey 08087 
Searobins (family Triglidae) are 
commonly taken in pound-net and 
bottom trawl fisheries along the 
United States east coast but are 
only occasionally sold as foodfish, 
lobster bait, or livestock feed (e.g. 
Goode, 1888; Smith, 1894a). Com- 
mercial landings of 100-200 metric 
tons annually were reported from 
the mid-Atlantic states during the 
1880’s (Collins, 1892), 1930’s (Mar- 
shall, 1946), and 1950’s (McHugh, 
1977). Millions of searobins are also 
taken incidentally by hook-and-line 
recreational anglers (Table 1). Re- 
searchers have long recognized the 
potential for increasing U.S. land- 
ings by developing a searobin fish- 
ery (Smith, 1894b; Marshall, 1946; 
Merriman and Warfel, 1948; Perl- 
mutter, 1959-60), but the market 
potential for searobins is limited by 
their relatively small size and a 
false perception that they are poi- 
sonous or difficult to handle (John- 
son et al., 1987; Murray et al., 1987). 
Two searobin species are common 
in the temperate, western North At- 
lantic: northern searobin, Prionotus 
carolinus (Linnaeus, 1771), and 
striped searobin, P evolans (Lin- 
naeus, 1766). They range from 
Canada to northern Florida (Bige- 
low and Schroeder, 1953; Gilmore, 
1977; Scott and Scott, 1988; Russell 
et al., 1992) but are most common 
year-round on the continental shelf 
from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras 
(Nichols and Breder, 1926; Hilde- 
brand and Schroeder, 1928; Ed- 
wards et al., 1962). Life history in- 
formation is provided in Marshall 
(1946), Wong (1968), McEachran 
and Davis (1970), Richards et al. 
Contribution 98-03 of the Institute of Ma- 
rine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers Univ., 
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8521. 
