98 
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF FISHERIES 
Length frequencies of 807 shad, “ Alosa sapidissima” 
[Measurements in millimeters, grouped iu 5-millimeter intervals 
Total 
length, 
milli- 
meters 
June 
July 
Aug. 
1 
Sept, i Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
Apr. 
May 
1-15 
16-30 
1-15 
16-31 
1-15 
16-31 
1-15 10-30 1-15 
! i 
16-31 
1-15 
16-30 
1-15 
16-31 
1-15 
16-31 
1-1516-28 
| 
1-15 
| 
16-31 1-15 
' 1 
16-30 
1-15 
16-31 
20-24 
5 
12 
14 
15 
26 
16 
3 
8 
6 
1 
I 
I 
1 
25-29 
2 
11 
5 
4 
_ 
30-34 _ _ . 
3 
11 
17 
12 
17 
15 
1 
1 
35-39 . 
8 
5 
11 
20 
9 
2 
4 
2 
40-44 
P“ 
45-49 
3 
8 
10 
5 
3 
2 
1 
2 
8 
9 
17 
21 
40 
21 
9 
7 
1 
1 
50-54 
4 
8 
22 
11 
6 
1 
1 
1 


55-59 
4 
10 
8 
12 
1 
4 
5 
8 
8 
2 
3 
1 
11 
32 
21 
17 
5 
1 
60-64 
1 
7 
21 
36 
23 
12 
1 
1 
1 
1 
2 
9 
6 
5 
3 
1 
1 
3 
1 
1 
.... 
65-09 
| 
70-74 
75-79 

80-84 

85-89 
2 
1 
90-94 
1 
95-99 
1 
.... 
1 
1 
! 
100-104 

2 
1 
i 
105-109 
.... 
i 
1 
110-114 
1 
.... 
3 
1 1 5-1 1 9 
— - 

120-124 
1 
2 
1 25-1 9.9 
130-134 
135-139 1 
1 
| 1 
140-144 
145-149 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 50 1 54 
155 159 1 
1 

940-944 
1 
| 
Total-. 
22 
106 
77 
61 
32 
35 
53 
31 
88 
137 
103 j 37 2 
3 
--j 10 
3 
1 
It is still a mystery, at least south of the New England coast, in what part of the sea the 
shad spends its life after it leaves the rivers and bays and until it again returns to spawn. To our 
knowledge no shad ever have been captured in the open sea off Chesapeake Bay, although men- 
haden purse seines are used in this region throughout the summer and fall. In the Gulf of Maine, 
however, adult shad not only are present (at times in abundance) from October until into December, 
but, according to Bigelow and Welsh (1925, p. 116), schools of immature shad from 1 foot long 
and one-half pound in weight up to 2 or 2)^ pounds are reported every year at Provincetown for 
a short period in June. These authors report the capture of numbers of shad about 14 inches in 
length in the traps at Magnolia and Beverly from June 20 to July 6, 1921. 
Atkins (1887, p. 684) reports large numbers of immature shad feeding about the bays and 
mouths of rivers along the coast of Maine during the summer after the main body of spawning fish 
had ascended the rivers. These immature so-called sea shad belonged to the group ranging from 
about one-half to 2% pounds in weight. Up to the present day these immature shad are caught 
every year along the New England coast, although the quantities taken now, in keeping with the 
reduced numbers of adult fish, are much smaller than they once were. Our only knowledge of 
the shad from the time (late in the fall of the year) the young leave the rivers and bays in which 
they were hatched until they return as mature spawning fish is obtained from the immature fish, 
probably 2 to 3 years old, that are found during the summer, as already stated, in fairly large numbers 
along the shores of the Gulf of Maine and in smaller numbers south of Cape Cod. 
Shad make their first appearance on the Atlantic coast in the St. Johns River, Fla., where they 
are first seen late in November and remain until March. It is extremely improbable that adult 
shad present in the Gulf of Maine in November and December could migrate to Florida and arrive 
there within the short period that would be necessary if they were to form part of the early winter 
catch of the St. Johns River. Stevenson (1899, p. 106), who made a study of the shad fisheries of 
the Atlantic coast, believed that the shad have a bathic migration rather than one toward and away 
from the Equator. The theory that shad migrate north and south along the Atlantic coast appears 
, no t to be as tenable as that they probably move off into deeper water of suitable temperature as 
