A synthesis of information describing the trophic basis for production of marine fishery yield along the east coast of the USA from New York through Georgia is presented. It includes a documentation of the species composition and magnitude of fishery harvest, a delineation of the major food chains, and an estimate of the flow rates of organic matter through populations of yield species. In order to place the information on fishery food webs inappropriate context, we related it to primary production within the system and trophic structure of other systems that have been described. We conclude that (1) algal production is inadequate to support the existing system, and vascular plant production is required; (2) detritus, a frequent dietary constituent, retains at least 42% of the organic material from which it was derived, when it is ingested; (3) the system efficiently converts available organic matter to harvested species through direct paths; and (4) evaluations of fish production in this system may be advanced most rapidly by research on detritus production and use, species composition and diets of forage fish, and mortality rates of both forage fish and prerecruits of yield species.