MIGRATIONS OF COD 
27 
COD TAGGED ON THE CHATHAM GROUNDS 
Although but few cod were tagged on the Chatham grounds, the recaptures show 
that the fish living there make virtually the same migrations as do those on Nantucket 
Shoals (Table 16) : 
Table 16 . — Recaptures of cod tagged on the Chatham grounds 
Tagged 
Recaptured 
Date 
Number 
tagged 
Date 
Locality 
May 27, 1923 
3 
Sept. 17, 1923 
July 12,1927 
July 25,1927 
Mar. 28, 1928 
May —,1928 
July 10,1928 
Mar. 27, 1929 
May 11,1927 
Chatham grounds. 
Do. 
May 3, 1927 
108 
May 4, 1927 
151 
South Channel. 
Wildwood, N. J. 
Ipswich Bay, Mass. 
South Channel. 
Off Sandy Hook, N. J. 
Chatham grounds. 
Do. 
Jones Beach, Long Island, N. Y. 
Cape May, N. J. 
South Channel. 
June 16, 1927 
146 
do_ 
Jan. 12,1928 
Jan. 23,1928 
July 26,1927 
Nov. 21, 1927 
Jan. —.1928 
Oct. 26,1928 
July 26,1927 
June 22, 1927 
34 
Barnegat Inlet, N. J. 
Cape May, N. J. 
Nantucket Shoals. 
South Channel. 
Sept. 2, 1927 .. 
36 
Sept. 10,1928 
Nantucket Shoals. 
July 13-19, 1928 
19 
Oct. 27, 1928 
7 
Of the 475 cod tagged on the Chatham grounds in 1927, 5 were reported recap- 
tured between western Long Island and southern New Jersey the whiter of 1927-28. 
The movements of the two cod tagged in June, 1927, and recaptured on Nantucket 
Shoals in September and in October, 1928, can not be known. Possibly these fish 
were on their way from the Chatham grounds to the Rhode Island-North Carolina 
region at the time they were recaught on the shoals, or they may have made a back- 
and-forth migration to these wintering grounds during the winter of 1 927-28 and upon 
their return eastward spent the summer on Nantucket Shoals instead of continuing 
to the Chatham grounds. The same uncertainty is attached to the fish recaptured 
off Sandy Hook, N. J., in March, 1929, for it may have migrated westward the fall 
of 1927 or 1928 or both years. 
Those Chatham tagged cod which showed no migration are discussed on page 47 
and the fish which went to Ipswich Bay is mentioned on page 39. 
EVIDENCE THAT MANY RHODE ISLAND-NORTH CAROLINA COD COME FROM SOUTHERN 
MASSACHUSETTS 
The small number of cod with tags (less than 2 per cent) that have been reported 
from west of Nantucket Shoals during any winter of record might at first sight lead 
one to believe that the grounds off southern Massachusetts contribute but a small 
part of the fish which migrate into the Rhode Island-North Carolina region. But 
many of the marked fish lose their tags (p. 14) and a good portion of the stock of cod 
on the wintering grounds survive the fishery and return eastward in the spring, thus 
failing to enter into the records. An illustration of the tag loss occurred the winter of 
1928-29 when two fishermen engaged in tagging cod off Wildwood, N. J., noted three 
fish with unmistakable tag scars, but none with tags, among 653 that were caught. 
But the degree of correspondence between tag returns and the total fishery from 
year to year is more significant than the percentage of tagged fish that are recaptured. 
