Claeys, R. R., R. S. Caldwell, N. H. Gutshall, and R. 



HOLTON. 



1975. Chlorinated pesticides and polychorinated biphenyls 

 in marine species, Oregon/Washington coast, 1972. Pes- 

 tic. Monit. J. 9:2-10. 

 Gardner, S. 



1973. Contamination of animal feeds, foods, and food- 

 packaging materials. Fed. Reg. 38:18096-18103. 



Hansen, D. J., P. R. Parrish, and J. Forester. 



1974. Aroclor 1016: Toxicity to and uptake by estuarine 

 animals. Environ. Res. 7:363-373. 



Harvey, G. R., H. P. Miklas, V. T. Bowen, and W. G. Stein- 



HAUER. 



1974. Observations on the distribution of chlorinated hy- 

 drocarbons in Atlantic Ocean organisms. J. Mar. Res. 

 32:103-118. 



HORWITZ, W. (editor). 



1980. Official methods of analysis of the AOAC. Assoc. Off. 

 Anal. Chem. 13:466-475. 

 Jelinek, C. F., and P. E. Corneliussen. 



1975. Levels of PCB's in the U.S. food supply. U.S. Food 

 Drug Admin., Bur. Foods, 8 p. 



Kinter, W. B., L. S. Merkens, R. H. Janicki, and A. M. 



GUARINO. 



1972. Studies on the mechanism of toxicity of DDT and 

 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): Disruption of osmo- 

 regulation in marine fish. Environ. Health Perspect. 

 1:169-173. 

 McDermott-Ehrlich, D., D. R. Young, andT. C. Heesen. 



1978. DDT and PCB in flatfish around southern California 

 municipal outfalls. Chemosphere 7:453-461. 

 Schmidt, A. M. 



1974. Poisonous or deleterious substances in food. Fed. 

 Reg. 39:42743-42748. 

 Sims, G. G., J. R. Campbell, F. Zemlyak, and J. M. Graham. 



1977. Organochlorine residues in fish and fishery products 

 from the northwest Atlantic. Bull. Environ. Contam. Tox- 

 icol. 18:697-705. 

 Smith, F. A., R. P. Sharma, R. I. Lynn, and J. B. Low. 



1974. Mercury and selected pesticide levels in fish and 

 wildlife of Utah: II. Levels of mercury, DDT, DDE, 

 dieldrin and PCB in chukars, pheasants and water- 

 fowl. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 12:153-157. 

 Spagnoli, J. J., and L. C. Skinner. 



1977. PCB's in fish from selected waters of New York 

 State. Pestic. Monit. J. 11:69-87. 

 Stout, V. F. 



1980. Organochlorine residues in fishes from the northwest 

 Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Fish. Bull., U.S. 

 78:51-58. 



Stout, V. F., and F. L. Beezhold. 



1981. Chlorinated hydrocarbon levels in fishes and shell- 

 fishes of the northeastern Pacific Ocean, including the 

 Hawaiian Islands. Mar. Fish. Rev. 43(1):1-12. 



Stout, V. F., C. R. Houle, and F. L. Beezhold. 



1981. A survey of chlorinated hydrocarbon residues in 

 menhaden fishery products. Mar. Fish. Rev. 43(3): 1-13. 



Donald F. Gadbois 

 Richard S. Maney 



Northeast Fisheries Center Gloucester Laboratory 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 

 Gloucester, MA 01930 



396 



FOODS OF COASTAL FISHES DURING 



BROWN SHRIMP, PENAEUS AZTECUS, 



MIGRATION FROM TEXAS ESTUARIES 



(JUNE-JULY 1981) 



During May, June, and July, brown shrimp, Penaeus 

 aztecus, migrate from Texas bays and estuaries to 

 offshore waters. These shrimp are, for the most part, 

 smaller than the 114 mm total length (TL) legal fish- 

 ing limit. To prevent overfishing of these juvenile and 

 subadult (60-130 mmTL) shrimps and to allow them 

 to move farther offshore during this period, the Gulf 

 of Mexico Fishery Management Council and the State 

 of Texas simultaneously prohibited nocturnal shrimp- 

 ing from the shoreline out to 370 km. The closure 

 remained in effect over the period 22 May through 15 

 July 1981. The rationale for the closure was an ex- 

 pected increase in yield from additional growth of the 

 protected brown shrimp and from elimination of 

 waste due to discarding of undersized brown shrimp 

 (Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council 1980; 

 Caillouet and Koi 1981). 

 NOAA's RV Oregon II conducted a trawl survey of 

 shrimp size distribution and abundance by depth in 

 the closure area from 4 June through 3 July 1981. 

 The survey provided us the opportunity to describe 

 the foods of Texas coastal fishes while evaluating the 

 natural mortality of brown shrimp due to predation. 

 This paper examines the foods of 8 1 species of fishes 

 collected during the shrimp survey. We present size- 

 and depth-related changes in diet for the more abun- 

 dant fishes, and further examine predation on 

 penaeid shrimps. 



Materials and Methods 



Fish samples were taken from trawl catches by the 

 RV Oregon II on 100 stations in 9-64 m waters off the 

 Texas coast (Fig. 1). The survey was conducted from 

 4 June through 3 July 1981. All trawls were made at 

 night (brown shrimp are nocturnally active) with a 

 12.2 m semiballoon trawl rigged with a tickler chain 

 and 2.4 m X 1.0 m wooden doors towed at 3 kn. Four 

 stations south of Galveston Bay were repeated at 2- 

 wk intervals; thus, a total of 1 08 trawl tows were made 

 over the entire coastline. Details of the sampling 

 strategy are given by Matthews (1982). Species com- 

 position, abundance, and biomass data for fishes and 

 invertebrates were recorded and standardized to 

 catch per 30-min tow for 89 of the 108 trawl catches. 

 Only penaeid shrimp data were recorded for the 

 other 19 catches. All fishes from each catch (up to a 

 45 kg maximum) were labelled and frozen for stom- 

 ach contents analysis. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 81, No. 2, 1983. 



