Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Migration of the Croaker, Micropogon undulatus

1959; American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists; Volume: 1959; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1440095

1938-5110

Dexter S. Haven,

Marine and fisheries research

T HE croaker, Micropogon undulatus, has declined appreciably in abundance since 1945 (Haven, 1957), but is still the most important food fish taken in Chesapeake Bay. Movements of postlarval and juvenile croakers from the ocean to the estuaries, and their return to the ocean as yearlings, have been described by Wallace (1940) and by Haven (1957). In comparison, the migratory pattern of adult croakers is imperfectly known, although their movement into the Bay in spring and their return to the ocean in fall has been reported (Hildebrand and Schroeder, 1928; Wallace, 1940). The southern limit of the winter migration, the return movement in spring, and the ages and numbers of fish involved have been based on observations of the fisheries and on limited tagging experiments (Pearson, 1932; Wallace, 1940; and Haven, 1957). In Chesapeake Bay, most croakers are captured in pound nets, haul seines, gill nets, and by hook and line, whereas in the ocean they are taken principally by trawls. The past history of the fishery has been characterized by wide fluctuations in abundance, and since 1945 annual Virginia landings declined from about 55 to 4 million pounds, then recovered to about 10 million pounds (Anderson and Power, 1943-1957). To the south croakers inhabit the sounds and coastal waters of North Carolina in considerable numbers, but commercial landings are considerably less than in Virginia. The largest commercial landings in recent years have been taken from the Gulf of Mexico. During certain seasons, large numbers of croakers captured in shrimp trawls in North Carolina that are too small to market as food, are sold as scrap or are discarded. Fishermen in Chesapeake Bay disapprove this destruction of young fish, believing that North Carolina sounds may be nursery areas for fish that later migrate northward and enter Chesapeake Bay.