MIGRATIONS OF COD 
31 
According to all the foregoing data on lengths, it would appear, making due 
allowance for the difference in size due to growth, that the cod which populate the 
grounds off New York and New Jersey (and, no doubt, farther southward) in winter 
are chiefly from the same stock which spends the summer off southern New England. 
There is no doubt that some of the fish come from other regions such as Georges 
Bank and Massachusetts Bay, for numbers of very large cod, such as we have seldom 
found on Nantucket Shoals, are taken from time to time during the winter off New 
York and New Jersey. But as only 5 cod out of about 1 6,000 tagged to the northward 
of Cape Cod were reported recaptured to the westward of the shoals (p. 93), it is evi- 
dent that these northern grounds furnish but a small proportion of the fish which 
occupy the southern wintering grounds. Still further evidence is furnished by a 
comparison of the scales of the cod living to the northward and southward of Cape 
Cod (p. 110), for, considered as a whole, it has been found that the latter fish, but not the 
Figure 10. — Length-frequency distribution of 304 cod caught on Nantucket Shoals in October, 1928 (solid line), and 354 
taken off Cape May, N. J., February 11 to April 18, 1929 (broken curve) 
former, possess the same type of scales as do the cod found off New York and New 
Jersey. 
SOUTHERN LIMIT OF THE COD 
Relatively few catches of cod have been reported from south of Delaware; hence 
we have but little knowledge of their migrations or abundance in that region. If the 
intensity of fishing were anywhere near as great as it was north of Delaware Bay, it 
is probable that rather large catches of cod would be made in the southernmost part 
of their wintering ground. Apparently the fish are more scattered south of New Jer- 
sey, and it does not pay to fish for them in competition with the large catches taken 
to the northward. Furthermore, even if cod could be caught in fair quantities off 
Virginia and North Carolina, it is doubtful if any of the small boats which fish in that 
region would make the long trip that would be necessary to reach the fishing grounds. 
That cod do occur south of Delaware in more than scattering numbers has been 
shown by a catch made by the mackerel schooner Relenter, of Gloucester, which caught 
some 600 pounds of large cod about 8 miles south of Cape Charles, Va., on April 5, 
1880 (Goode, 1884, p. 202), and by the catches made inside Chesapeake Bay in 
January and March, 1928, and in March, 1930 (p. 24). Other catches of record 
include one made by the Clare, which caught 8 cod off Currituck, N. C., on March 22, 
1929, while dragging for croakers, and one made by an otter trawler which took 3 
cod off North Carolina in February, 1929. 
Along the shore between Delaware and Chesapeake Bays cod are caught each 
fall in pound nets, and for brief periods a small run occurs. The fall of 1928, 2 tagged 
3 
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