LARVAL DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS - EARLY SIGNALS FOR THE COLLAPSE RECOVERY OF ATLANTIC HERRING CLUPEA-HARENGUS IN THE GEORGES BANK AREA

Changing temporal and spatial distribution patterns of Atlantic herrin g Clupea harengus larvae collected off southern New England over two d ecades provided early signals of large-scale changes in adult spawning biomass that are now a matter of record. Four contrasting spawning pa tterns were evident during the 20 yr period. Each pattern covered succ essive multi-year intervals and reflected the corresponding status of the adult population. In 1971, spawning occurred throughout the George s Bank/Nantucket Shoals/Massachusetts Bay study area. The principal sp awning grounds of herring in the Gulf of Maine region were located on the Northeast Peak of Georges Bank. With the collapse of the Georges B ank fishery in 1976, spawning receded westward to Nantucket Shoals. By 1979, larvae occurred only in the Stellwagen Banks area of Massachuse tts Bay, the smallest of the three subareas. After a 6yr hiatus, spawn ing beds on Nantucket Shoals were reoccupied in 1985. By 1988 spawning had advanced eastward to Cultivator Shoals on Georges Bank, but throu gh 1990 we found no evidence of renewed spawning activity on the histo rically-prominent spawning beds on Northeast Peak. The rebuilding proc ess was attributed to recolonization rather than resurgence.