392 



Fishery Bulletin 91(2). 1993 



I 



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 E 



tu 



O 

 cr. 



LU 



m 



5 



z 



BIRTHDATE 



Figure 2 



Back-calculated birthdate for 43 YOY bluefish Pomatomus 

 saltatrix examined in this study. Date of collection is also 

 shown by month. 



continental shelf in July. Spring-spawned bluefish ar- 

 rived in SAB estuaries at about the same age (i.e., 40- 

 60d old) but at an earlier first date of estuarine re- 

 cruitment than in northern estuaries such as New York 

 and New Jersey. Spring-spawned bluefish arrive to the 

 New York Bight no earlier than late May and approxi- 

 mately 60d after hatching (Nyman & Conover 1988, 

 McBride & Conover 1991). 



Our findings support Collins & Stender's (1987) 

 hypothesis that at least some spring-spawned YOY 

 bluefish are transported directly inshore and enter es- 

 tuaries south of Cape Fear. Combined with previous 

 evidence of dispersal north of Cape Hatteras (Nyman 

 & Conover 1988, McBride & Conover 1991), spring- 

 spawned bluefish appear to recruit to estuaries within 

 a broad geographic region encompassing both the SAB 

 and the MAB. 



(Table 2, Fig. 2) and may have been produced at the 

 tail end of the "fall-spawning" period. 



Discussion 



Spring-spawned YOY bluefish This cohort recruited 

 to the estuaries of North and South Carolina as early 

 as April and as young as 40d old, and continued to 

 ingress as late as mid-June. Spring-spawned bluefish 

 grew rapidly and appeared in the North Carolina 

 pound-net fishery and in trawls over the nearshore 



Summer-spawned YOY bluefish This cohort also ap- 

 peared in estuaries and in nearshore habitats within 

 the SAB. Summer-spawned fish arrived in October at 

 ~100-150mmFL and were generally older than lOOd. 

 The presence of these summer-spawned fish in the 

 SAB demonstrates that this cohort migrates from their 

 MAB spawning/nursery grounds into the SAB in the 

 fall. Lund and Maltezos (1970) demonstrated that YOY 

 bluefish tagged in New York migrated to the SAB, but 

 these tagged fish were the larger spring-spawned fish. 



Fall-spawned YOY bluefish This cohort was not 

 clearly observed in length-frequency data and, at most, 



