32 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
Nantucket cod were taken in nets set oft' Hog Island, about 22 miles northward of the 
Cape Charles (Va.), Lighthouse, which is located at the entrance of Chesapeake 
Bay. In addition to these 2 fish several others were recaptured in the same locality, 
but their tags were lost. 
Smith (1 907, p. 382) states that small numbers of cod are taken in fall, winter, and 
spring as far south as the latitude of Roanoke Island, N. C., while a few round Cape 
Hatteras, and stragglers have been observed about Ocracoke Inlet. (Goode, 1884, 
p. 202.) This is the most southerly record for the species. It seems that odd cod 
even stray into Pamlico Sound. (Smith, ibid., p. 382.) 
RETURN MIGRATION OF COD TO NEW ENGLAND FROM SOUTHERN WINTERING GROUNDS 
Having followed the cod to their southern wintering ground in the fall, it is 
logical to conclude that in the spring they return to New England waters by some- 
what the same route. However, while the good catches made in the fall along the 
immediate coast from Rhode Island to Delaware indicate that a large part of the cod 
follow the shore route westward, the route taken eastward differs from this. Thus, 
although good catches are made close to shore off southern New Jersey in March 
and April and off eastern Long Island and Rhode Island in April and May, the catches 
off western Long Island and northern New Jersey are relatively small after January 1, 
with only a slight increase in the spring. This scarcity of cod in the angle, contrasted 
with the good catches made in the spring off southern New Jersey and around eastern 
Long Island, shows that the fish as they return eastward cut across the New York 
bight at the apex of this reentrant angle of the coast line, thus shortening their route. 
In the most southerly cod region, around Cape Hatteras, the latest records of 
catch are for the first week of April. Farther north, near the mouth of Chesapeake 
Bay (off Hog Island), cod are taken in pound nets until about April 15; and along the 
coast from Delaware to Nantucket Shoals the following are the latest dates when 
tagged cod have been recaptured and which coincide closely with the end of the 
commercial fishery: South of Barnegat Inlet, April 22; Barnegat Inlet to Fire Island, 
May 7; east of Fire Island to Montauk Point, May 2; east of Montauk Point to 
Marthas Vineyard, May 24. 
Cod am seldom caught west of Rhode Island during the summer in spite of the 
fact that there is considerable sport and commercial fishing there at that time. The 
latest record for Cape May, N. J., is May 23, when 2 cod were taken there hy a flounder 
dragger. Off northern New Jersey, Capt. Jacob Martin of Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., 
records the capture of a number of cod during July and August and very exceptional 
catches of 70 and 35 fish taken on a ground known as the “Farms” on September 
22, 1921, and September 22, 1926, respectively. Very likely these fish were “left 
overs” from the previous winter. 
Apparently very few cod move out to the deeper waters off the Long Island and 
New Jersey coasts to spend the summer, for, although the bottom temperature of 
43° to 53° F. at 10 to 50 fathoms (p. 74) is as cool or cooler than the maximum summer 
temperatures of Nantucket Shoals, and an abundant food supply of crustaceans is 
present (Linton, 1901, p. 471), tile fishermen who operate along the continental shelf 
catch only straggling cod in the summer. 
That a few cod summer off Rhode Island is proven by the occasional catches that 
are made there at that time, but these have never been large enough to suggest that a 
good-sized body of fish are present. 
