MIGRATIONS OF COD 
21 
Locality: 
Ship Bottom, N. J 
Beach Haven 
Atlantic City 
Townsends Inlet. . 
Avalon 
Wildwood 
(B) REGIONAL SUMMARY 
Recaptures 
4 
5 
31 
1 
1 
11 
Locality: 
Cape May 
Delaware Bay 
Cape Henlopen, Del 
9 miles east of Indian River - 
Hog Island, Va 
Hampton Roads 
Recaptures 
20 
2 
2 
2 - 
2 
1 
We can not assume that the regional distribution of recaptures along New Jersey 
reflects a corresponding regional variation in the abundance of fish, because fishing 
is much more intensive near the chief centers of population — Atlantic City and Cape 
May — than along the intervening stretches; that is, more returns would naturally be 
expected there. Without question a good part of the Nantucket cod migrate as far 
south as southern New Jersey and Delaware, else we would not have obtained the 
relatively large number of recapture records that we did. It will be noted that in this 
latter region (Table 12) a greater number of tagged fish were taken from January to 
April than from October to December- — a result opposite to that which obtained for 
the western Long Island-northern New Jersey sector. (Table 9.) This is explained 
partly by the fact that the small boats of southern New Jersey fish for cod continuously 
throughout the winter, whereas off the northern coast and around New York City fish- 
ing is considerably curtailed after December and the great amount of sport fishing that 
is done there early in the year is reduced to a minimum after January 1. But even 
so, cod have been found to be much less plentiful off the northern coast during late 
winter and early spring than to the southward between Atlantic City and Delaware 
Bay. It would seem, therefore, that a good part of the cod which occupy grounds 
between Fire Island and Barnegat Inlet during early winter move farther southward 
and spread over the much more extensive grounds there. 
Some knowledge as to whether the stock of cod off southern New Jersey are 
migrating fish or winter residents has been gained from the experiences of the com- 
mercial fishermen and from direct observation. 
Fishermen, within their own immediate neighborhood, often can follow a body of 
cod from day to day, inshore, offshore, or up and down the coast by observing on which 
part of the 1 to 3 miles of trawl line the best catch is made. Very often a fishing boat 
will lay its trawls in about the same place from week to week and catch cod which 
are so nearly the same size as to virtually prove them to be of the same body of fish, 
for a much wider variation in size might be expected if they were transients. Such 
was our experience during the course of cod tagging off Atlantic City from March 23 
to April 13, 1928. (Fig. 9.) 
Along the coast of southern New Jersey cod are confined to definite areas, 
although they may shift ground a very short distance even over night. In cases 
where two trawl lines are set parallel, say about one-fourth of a mile apart, one often 
catches 5 to 10 times as many cod as the other. And what proved to be a good “lay ” 
one day often fails the next, although the fish may be only a few hundred feet either 
side of the trawl. This shifting of the cod for very short distances shows that they 
must remain well schooled up at such times. Their movements probably are governed 
largely by their food supply. Yet in March, 1929, off Cape May, when I observed 
this shifting about of the cod, their stomachs contained the usual bottom forms such 
as crabs, shrimps, mollusks, and worms. At this time they had eaten very few sand 
eels, which type of food might easily have explained their moving. Although cod 
off New Jersey, and probably anywhere west of Rhode Island, often shift short 
distances from day to day, this does not argue against the belief based upon our 
