NOTE McBnde et al. : Recruitment of Pomatomus saltatrix. to estuaries 



391 



20. 

 10 



lf ,M| J^HUlM. f J. 



September 

 n-23 



£-3 



,■1.1 ill ll  



October 

 n-20 



ju 



juju 



November 

 n-33 



i r"'"i 'i I 



10 100 ISO 260 250 300 



FORK LENGTH (mm) 



B 



May 

 n-49 



JufllL 



June 

 n-238 



r> Ml)Ullpil,ll, n . 



100 190 200 230 300 350 



FORK LENGTH (mm) 



100 130 200 250 



FORK LENGTH (mm) 



100 150 200 250 300 150 



FORK LENGTH (mm) 



Figure 1 



Length-frequency histograms of bluefish Pomatomus saltatrix <360mmFL for (A) monthly data pooled over the years 1979-90 from a 

 N.C. Dep. Mar. Fish, trawl survey; (B) 1984 monthly data from the N.C. summer estuarine pound-net fishery; (C) 1988 monthly data 

 from the SEAMAP nearshore trawl survey between N.C. and Florida; and (D) 1984-85 monthly data from the N.C. winter oceanic trawl 

 fishery. Years plotted for the last three data sets are representative of data from other years. Ordinates are either 20 or 30%. 



Fig. 2). These summer-spawned fish appeared to reach 

 a size similar to that of spring-spawned fish at a com- 

 mon age (Fig. 3), but because they were spawned 2mo 

 later (on average), they were smaller on common sam- 

 pling dates (Fig. 1A,B,C). 



Evidence of fall-spawned juveniles Winter trawl col- 

 lections did not contain small juveniles between October 

 and January, despite the expectation of an additional 



length-mode representing fall-spawned fish (Fig. ID). 

 There was very little evidence of fall-spawned fish in 

 any of the length-frequency data, except possibly two 

 fish (~40-60mmFL) collected in October and Novem- 

 ber in North Carolina estuaries (Fig. 1A). Based on 

 otolith ageing, a single specimen collected in August 

 was determined to be 206d old (i.e., with a correspond- 

 ing birthdate of 9 January) which was unique in rela- 

 tion to all other estimated birthdates in this study 



