28 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
In order to determine whether a parallelism existed between the percentage of tagged 
Nantucket cod taken to the westward and the amounts of cod caught there by the 
fishery each winter, the recaptures for the years 1923 to 1928 are listed in Table 17. 
Table 17 .- — Recaptures of cod made the first fall to spring after tagging between Rhode Island and 
Virginia, divided according to the locality on Nantucket Shoals where they were marked 
Tagging locality on Nantucket Shoals 
Number 
tagged 
Recaptures made between Rhode Island and Virginia, 
the first fall to spring following tagging 
Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Total 
Percent- 
age re- 
captured 
1923 
Round Shoal buoy to Rose and Crown buoy 
Pollock Rip --- 
Bass Rip - 
Great Rip buoy 
Davis Bank 
Total - - 
1924 
Round Shoal buoy to Rose and Crown buoy 
5 to 12 miles ESE. of Round Shoal buoy 
Davis Bank 
Total - 
1925 
Round Shoal buoy to Rose and Crown buoy 
Great Rip buoy 
5 to 12 miles ESE. of Round Shoal buoy 
Davis Bank - 
Total 
1926 
Round Shoal huoy to Rose and Crown buoy. 
Great Rip buoy 
Total 
1927 
Round Shoal buoy to Rose and Crown buoy. 
Great Rip buoy - 
Davis Bank - 
Total — 
1928 
Round Shoal buoy to Rose and Crown buoy 
Great Rip buoy 
Total... 
Grand total - 
6,209 
32 
164 
316 
793 
7, 514 
2,246 
796 
63 
3, 105 
2,562 
926 
515 
7 
4, 010 
1, 160 
444 
1,604 
3,287 
1, 576 
157 
5, 020 
885 
28 
26 
82 
30 
38 
66 
18 
242 
.61 
1.26 
.75 
1.09 
1 . 20 
.25 
1. 59 
1.09 
.86 
.39 
.95 
.60 
.23 
.50 
1.52 
1.01 
.64 
1.31 
1.81 
2.27 
1.85 
1.09 
No statistics of the cod catch taken in the Rhode Island-Delaware region are 
available for these years. But the general opinion of the fishermen was that the 
catch of cod during the winters from 1923-24 to 1925-26 were avepage ones, that 
1926-27 was slightly below normal, and that the seasons of 1927-28 and 1928-29 
were among the best they had ever experienced. The percentage of tagged fish 
recaptured, as given in Table 17, followed very closely the trend of the fishery. As 
there were no marked changes in fishing intensity during this period, we may conclude 
that the years of heaviest migrations from southern Massachusetts are also the years 
when the best fishing obtains on the western and southern grounds. 
Another interesting point brought out by the segregation of recaptures in Table 
17 is that the western part of Nantucket Shoals contributed a larger percentage of its 
