120 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
about by (a) cod fry which take to the bottom on Nantucket Shoals and reach ma- 
turity there and (6) the immigration of older fish. 
13. A large part of the cod fry which seek bottom on Nantucket Shoals appear 
to come from eggs spawned along the coast of Maine. But so few fish between 1 
and 2 years of age have been found on the shoals that it is probable that the fry 
succeed only in a small way in keeping up the stock of adult fish. 
14. The stock of cod on Nantucket Shoals is kept up chiefly by young adult 
and nearly adult fish which immigrate from other regions. (Recaptures of tagged 
fish indicate that most of these immigrants come from the offshore grounds and 
that very few come from alongshore to the eastward of Cape Ann.) 
15. Georges Bank and South Channel, because of their proximity and the large 
stock of cod which they support, and because they formed the route of a good 
proportion of the tagged cod which immigrated to southern New England, are the 
most likely source of the cod which appear in schools on Nantucket Shoals from time 
to time. 
16. The same individual cod may remain on Nantucket Shoals for two or three 
years or, if some of them winter to the westward, they may be found on the shoals 
for several successive summers. But cod do not remain on the shoals indefinitely, 
for the great majority of the grown fish are between 18 and 30 inches long, and the 
larger ones of this size group tend to move away into deeper water. Few remain 
after they reach 34 inches, while those above 40 inches form less than 1 per cent of 
the population, although in deep water on the offshore banks these latter fish may 
often form from 10 to 20 per cent of the catch. 
17. Cod living off southern Massachusetts are approximately 7 to 8 inches 
long at 1 year of age, 14 to 17 inches at 2 years, 19 to 22 inches at 3 years, 23 to 
26 inches at 4 years, and 27 to 29 inches at 5 years. 
TABULATION OF THE RECAPTURES 
Table 49 . — A list of all the recaptures of cod tagged between the Nantucket Shoals region and southern 
New Jersey 
[Those marked with an asterisk (*) were taken by one of the tagging vessels, the Halcyon or the Albatross II] 
Tagged 
Recaptured 1 
Tag 
No. 
Length 
Locality 
Date 
Date 
Locality 
11004 
11020 
11037 
11058 
11161 
11177 
11397 
11446 
11462 
11466 
11507 
11611 
11621 
11622 
11675 
11714 
11725 
11726 
11737 
11746 
11810 
11833 
11863 
Inches 
30 
34 
38 
31 
38H 
3814 
30 
21 H 
28 
32 
26 !4 
20 H 
25 
26 n 
26) 4 
19)4 
23 
34)4 
30)4 
26 
2594 
28 
27) i 
Nantucket Shoals 
Apr. 19,1923 
- -.-.do. 
July 30,1923 
South Channel. 
Nantucket Shoals. 
-_do_ . 
June 7, 1923 
Portland, Me. 
Nantucket Shoals (35)4). 
South Channel. 
__ _do._ 
May 30; 1924 
July 16,1923 
Oct. 15,1927 
Aug. 17,1923 
Aug. 31, 1923 
Oct. 24,1923 
Oct. 16,1923 
Dec. 29,1923 
Dec. 27,1923 
Jan. 7,1925 
Nov. 4,1923 
June 29,1923 
July 13,1924 
Nov. 29, 1923 
Apr. 27,1923 
do. 
Do. 
May 23, 1923 
do. 
Nantucket Shoals. 
South Channel. 
. ..do.. 
Nantucket Shoals. 
do. .. . 
Nantucket Shoals (33)4).* 
Cape May, N. J. 
Manasquan, N. .T. 
Westhampton, N. Y. (27)4). 
Seabright, N. J. 
Off Chatham. 
... .do .. . 
May 24, 1923 
do 
do 
do. 
May 25, 1923 
Nantucket Shoals (24M).* 
Plymouth, Mass. 
Cholera Bank, N. Y. (37). 
Nantucket Shoals. 
Nov. 24, 1923 
May 24, 1924 
July 25,1923 
June 19, 1923 
do 
do. 
Off Chatham. 
do 
Do. 
do.. 
July 5, 1923 
Dec. 11,1923 
Nantucket Shoals. 
do 
May 26, 1923 
Bayhead, N. J. 
i In cases where a fish was measured upon recapture, the length, in inches, is given in parentheses. 
