FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 71, NO. 1 



Table 3. — Monthly occurrence and number of individuals of vertebrates and invertebrates collected with otter trawl 

 at Station I from August 1970 through August 1971. No individual collected in August and September 1970 and 

 in July and August 1971. 



In the latter part of June, after our monthly 

 sample, a severe outbreak of red tide occurred 

 in a large part of Tampa Bay, including the study 

 area. Massive fish kills were noted in the Bay 

 through most of July (Karen Steidinger, Florida 

 Department of Natural Resources Biological 

 Laboratory, pers. comm.). Data are not avail- 

 able on the size of the kill, but an estimated 3,000 

 tons of various species were removed from 

 beaches in the Bay area (Lloyd Dove, St. Peters- 

 burg Public Works Director, pers. comm,). No 

 live specimens were collected in the study area 

 during July or August. The absence of speci- 

 mens during this period corresponded with low 

 dissolved oxygen at the bottom. 



DISCUSSION 



At least 36 of the 265 species of finfish, shrimp, 

 and crabs known to inhabit the Tampa Bay area 

 (Springer and Woodburn, 1960; Dragovich and 

 Kelly, 1964; Sykes and Finucane, 1966) utilized 



the study area throughout most of the year. It 

 was not surprising to find bay anchovy as the 

 dominant species as it is known to be dominant 

 in bayfill canals of Boca Ciega Bay, Fla., (Taylor 

 and Saloman, 1968) and in housing development 

 canals in Texas (unpublished data*). 



Although the majority of individual fishes 

 taken in the study area was plankton feeders, 

 most of the species (26) were demersal or bot- 

 tom feeders based on knowledge of their life 

 histories (Darnell, 1958; Springer and Wood- 

 burn, 1960; Odum, 1971). Taylor and Saloman 

 ( 1968) , using the same trawl size and procedures 

 as in our study, reported that no demersal fishes 

 were taken in bayfill canals of Boca Ciega Bay. 

 However, examination of additional, unpublished 

 data' from canals in Boca Ciega Bay showed that 



* Unpublished data on file at Gulf Coastal Fisheries 

 Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Fort 

 Crockett, Building 302, Galveston, TX 77550. 



^ Unpublished data on file at Gulf Coastal Fisheries 

 Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 75 

 33d Avenue, St. Petersburg, FL 33706. 



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