. Commercial fisheries review. Fisheries; Fish trade. 12 COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW Vol. 16. No. 10 CHANGES IN CATCH COMPOSITION It is common knowledge that changes occur in the fishing grounds from year to year and that these changes rnay bring either more valuable or less valuable catches. Not only does the volume change, but the kinds of shrimp and fish caught on some Gulf grounds appear to change from time to time. There are many ex- amples in the records of Oregon catches indicating that change in catch composition is a normal con- dition. We have previously reported (Springer and Bullis
. Commercial fisheries review. Fisheries; Fish trade. 12 COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW Vol. 16. No. 10 CHANGES IN CATCH COMPOSITION It is common knowledge that changes occur in the fishing grounds from year to year and that these changes rnay bring either more valuable or less valuable catches. Not only does the volume change, but the kinds of shrimp and fish caught on some Gulf grounds appear to change from time to time. There are many ex- amples in the records of Oregon catches indicating that change in catch composition is a normal con- dition. We have previously reported (Springer and Bullis 1952) the pres- ence of pink-grooved shrimp off the Alabama and Mississippi coasts making up as much as 30 percent of the grooved-shrimp catch of some vessels in the late spring and sum- mer of 1950. Very few pinks, not more than one percent of the catch of grooved shrimp, were noted in the following three spring and sum- mer seasons. Furthermore, there was substantial agreement among commercial fishermen that few pink-grooved shrimp had been present in catches prior to 1950. In January 1951 the Oregon made a series of 5 exploratory drags between Fort Myers and Tampa Bay in depths of 6 to 18 fathoms. Three of these drags (of 15 to 30 min- utes duration) resulted in such heavy catches of loggerhead sponges that the nets were badly ripped while hoisting them aboard and most of the catch was lost. Al- though pink-grooved shrimp were taken, there was no indication of commercial con- centration from any of these catches. However, in the summer of 1953 connmercial fishing by a few vessels was carried on near Fort Myers in 7-8 fathoms with moder- ate Fig. 13 - The Weems trawl door, designed to be used with large shrimp trawls on soft mud bottom. In August 1953 a few landings of shrimp in Louisiana for canning received spe- cial attention because, although the shrimp were quite fresh, they were reddish. A sample of the catches was examined and found to be made up of Trachype
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