MIGRATIONS OF COD 
23 
beginning in February and lasted until the end of the fishing season in April (shown 
by the dotted line in fig. 6). The predominance of the smaller fish was greatest in 
February and became less toward April, as if the larger fish gradually returned to the 
grounds they occupied during December and January. The cause of the sudden rise 
in the proportion of small fish in February may have been due to an influx of a school 
of cod of these sizes, to the emigration of the large fish, or to both causes. We believe 
that a migration of the larger cod from offshore to inshore (and inside Delaware Bay) 
was the chief cause, as explained in the next paragraph. 
3. The solid line in Figure 6 represents an unselected sample of cod taken inside 
Delaware Bay on February 25, 1929. Just how representative of the bay as a whole 
this sample was and how long cod of these sizes were present can not be said, but, 
as fishermen caught good-sized cod there for some time, we have some basis for 
believing that the drop in the percentage of 26 to 28 inch cod offshore was caused by 
their migration into and around the mouth of Delaware Bay. The recapture of a 
tagged offshore (McCries Shoals) cod inside of Delaware Bay (Table 13) makes this 
supposition all the more probable. 
Letters giving information about the habits of the cod off southern New Jersey 
were received from several fishermen, including Francis Widerstrom, Fred C. Miller, 
Figure 6.— Broken line, 298 cod caught around McCries Shoals, Cape May, in December, 1928, and January, 1929. Dotted 
line, 354 cod caught around McCries Shoals February 11 to April 18, 1929. Solid line, 98 cod caught in Delaware Bay 
February 25, 1929 
and William Hare, of Wildwood; George Williams, of Cape May; and Harry Donath, 
of Atlantic City. These fishermen state that the first cod appear some time between 
October 20 and November 15, along shore in 6 to 8 fathoms of water. In January, 
February, and March they are found to be more plentiful in 13 to 15 fathoms. During 
the last of March and in April they again are found in shoaler water, but after about 
April 15 virtually none are caught until the next fall, although fishing for other species 
of fish is done throughout the summer on the same grounds where cod are caught 
during the winter. That all cod do not disappear the middle of April is shown by 
the few stragglers that are caught as late as Majr. 
On rare occasions in the past a cod has been taken far up the Delaware River, 
but at the present time, with the increase of commercial activities along the river, 
such instances are perhaps unknown. Abbott (1871, p. 116) records that — 
On the 23d or 24t,h of January a healthy, strong, active codfish ( Morrhua americana) weighing 
nearly four pounds was taken in a drawnet. The stomach of this fish showed it had been in river 
water for several days. The fisherman who took this specimen considered it the first instance 
of the kind on record, but such is not the case. Several have been taken about Philadelphia during 
the past twenty years. 
