The Bait Purse-seine Fishery for Atlantic Menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, in the Virginia Portion of Chesapeake Bay

摘要

Through the mid 1990’s, the bait purse-seine fishery for Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, in the Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay was essentially undocumented. Beginning in 1995, captains of Virginia bait vessels maintained deck logs of their daily fishing activities;udconcurrently, we sampled the bait landings for size and age composition of the catch. Herein, we summarize 15 years (1995–2009) of data from the deck logbooks, includingudinformation on total bait landings by purse seine, proportion of fishing to nonfishing days, proportion of purse-seine sets assisted by spotter pilots, nominal fishingudeffort, median catches, and temporal and areal trends in catch. Age and size composition of the catch are described, as well as vessel and gear characteristics and dispositionudof the catch.