Report on the results of exploratory otter-trawling along the continental shelf and slope between Nova Scotia and Virginia during the summers of 1952 and 1953
Schroeder, W.C. (1955). Report on the results of exploratory otter-trawling along the continental shelf and slope between Nova Scotia and Virginia during the summers of 1952 and 1953, in: Papers in Marine Biology and Oceanography. Dedicated to Henry Bryant Bigelow, By His Former Students and Associates on the occasion of The Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Founding of The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1955. Deep-Sea Research (1953), 3(Supplement): pp. 358-372 In: (1955). Papers in Marine Biology and Oceanography. Dedicated to Henry Bryant Bigelow, By His Former Students and Associates on the occasion of The Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Founding of The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1955. Deep-Sea Research (1953), 3(Supplement). Pergamon Press: London & New York. 498 pp., more In: Deep-Sea Research (1953). Pergamon: Oxford; New York. ISSN 0146-6291; e-ISSN 1878-2485, more |   |
| Abstract | No large fish populations were found comparable to those present on our known fishing banks. The area designated as A, from Long. 63° 17' to Long. 65° 59' W, yielded considerably more fish both in number and pounds than did any of the areas from Long. 66° to Long. 74° 15' W. The 200- 400 fathom depth zone, on the overall average, produced the best catches throughout all these areas. A total of 75 species of bottom dwelling fishes were caught, most of them in numbers so small as to suggest that they are of little economic importance within this region. Among the dominant species were (a) the redfish, Sebastes marinus, which was taken in promising numbers, and large in size, in depths of 220-370 fathoms between Long. 63° 50' and Long. 65° 27' W; (b) the long-finned hake, Urophycis chesteri, found chiefly between 200-450 fathoms throughout all the areas fished ; (c) the oifshore hake, Merluccius albidus, taken west of Long. 66° and chiefly in 100-350 fathoms and {d) the grenadier, Coryphaenoides riipestris, present in greatest abundance east of Long. 66° and in depths of 300-500 fathoms. Lobsters were caught in relatively large numbers off" southern New England between 70-150 fathoms and as deep as 260 fathoms. A deep water lobster fishery in this region has ensued as a result of the discovery of these grounds. The red crab, Geryon quinquidens, was found to be distributed throughout the range of our exploratory trawling in depths beyond 150-200 fathoms and in quantities that might prove sufficient to support a new fishery for this species which up to the present has been unexploited. Bottom temperatures in 200-730 fathoms, throughout the region explored, varied but little either up and down the slope or from east to west, indicating a stability in this respect so far as concerns the bottom- and near bottom-dwelling marine life. |
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