National Marine Fisheries Service

• Main Authors: S. A. Murawski, F M. Serchu. L, Woods Hole. Laboratory
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Nantucket; Ocean quahog
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.423.5188; http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/series/whlrd/whlrd8320.pdf

The relative abundance of surf ' clams, Spisula solidissima, in FeZ waters off Southern. New England was assessed using data from a series of research vessel survey cruises during 1980-1982. These'data 'were compared to similar information for surf clam assessment areas further to the South (New Jersey'to North'Carolina). Based on these analyses about 5% ' of the total resource in numbers, and 10 % in weight is found in the Southern New England area. The majority of the Southern New England,Resource is concentrated at the periphery of Nantucket Shoals,. which is. an area difficult to survey and fish due to irregular bottom topography, shallow depths, and swift tidal currents. Distribution of the surf clam resource in Southern New England appears more sporadic than in other Middle Atlantic assessment areas. Size and age data for the Southern New England stock indicate the population is dominated by clams 7-10 years old, and that recruitment has been relatively poor during the last 5-6 years. Southern New England clams appear slightly faster growing than their Middle Atlantic counterparts, and meat yields. are greater for similar sized clams in the Southern New England Area. Harvest of surf clams, Spisula soTidissima, from offshore waters of the United States East Coast has- been managed since November 1971, under provisions of the Surf Clam and Ocean Quahog Fishery Management Plan (Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council 1977). Initial management measures implemented during 1977-1979 considered as ' a s-ingle management unit, all surf clam resources off the U.S. Coast 3-200 n miles from land. Effective 1 January 1980 two separate management units were established; the New England area was defined as the region.east of a line running SSE from Montauk Point, New York (~id-Atlantic Fishery