September 22, 2014 — Total catch from 311 seining operations was 74,277 fish with the five top catches Atlantic menhaden, American shad, bay anchovy, banded killifish and white perch.
These are the good old days compared to 1980.
Back then the first Delaware River Seine survey by the Bureau of Marine Fisheries only turned up seven young of the year striped bass in the hauls. Those were times of severe species depletion for the popular gamefish.
The 2013 survey, from June 18 to November 22, caught 846 striped bass and 802 were less than a year old, a very positive sign of spawning success.
Stripers were the tenth most caught species in the survey, taken in tidal waters from Salem to Burlington counties.
Total catch from 311 seining operations was 74,277 fish with the five top catches Atlantic menhaden, American shad, bay anchovy, banded killifish and white perch.
In one monster haul in June, 2013, 30,727 menhaden (bunker) were netted. They do travel in large schools. That was 91 percent of all of this most important forage fish caught in the six-months of seining and 46 percent of all fish caught.
The oily menhaden is also a mega-important commercial fishery, Omega-3 and all that.
American shad totaled 10,799; white perch, 2,896 and one brown trout.
Other fish turning up in the 100-foot long by 6-foot deep and a quarter-inch thick seine included bluefish, largemouth bass, croaker, channel cats, yellow perch, bluegills and sunnies. You can find the complete species list at www.njfishandwildlife.com.
Read the full story from the Trentonian