MIGRATIONS OF COD 
35 
must be large, for the catch there usually ranges between three and five million 
pounds. After the cod leave southern Massachusetts for the wintering grounds to 
the westward they drop off along the route anywhere between Rhode Island and North 
Carolina. Once established in a particular region, many of the fish remain localized 
for a large part of the winter and do not move far until their return eastward in the 
spring. 
Virtually all the cod from east of longitude 70° W. which survive death or capture 
after reaching the wintering grounds to the westward and southward of Nantucket 
Shoals return to New England before or during the spring. Some may return east- 
ward at any time during the winter, but most of them in March and April, and the 
last stragglers leave New Jersey waters in Alay. We have as evidence of the return 
migration the increased catches of cod off New Jersey and New York, made in March 
and April as compared with January and February, and off Rhode Island in April 
and May; the recapture during the summer and fall off southern New England of cod 
tagged off New York and New Jersey the previous winter and spring; the migration 
to Nantucket Shoals in the spring of cod tagged around Buzzards Bay and at Woods 
Hole during the winter; and the fact that cod are virtually absent west of Rhode Island 
during the summer. 
MIGRATION OF COD TO THE NORTH AND EAST OF NANTUCKET SHOALS 
MIGRATION TO THE CHATHAM-SOUTH CHANNEL REGION 
Only about 10 to 40 miles separate the centers of the Chatham-South Channel 
region from localities on Nantucket Shoals where tagging has been done, (Fig 12.) 
Because of this proximity and a considerable amount of commercial fishing which is 
done on the grounds adjacent to the shoals, it was natural that we should expect 
many of the Nantucket tagged cod to be recaptured there. But although good 
returns were had from the Chatham grounds, where the commercial catch has of recent 
years been small, the recaptures reported from South Channel fell below expectations. 
Table 18. — Cod tagged on Nantucket Shoals and recaptured on the Chatham grounds during the years 
19 S3 to 1928 
Table 19. — Cod tagged on Nantucket Shoals and recaptured in South Channel during the years 1923 to 
1928 
1 '1 cod was recaptured in October, 1927. 
