FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 71, NO. 2 



Table 3. — The number of sand lance larvae taken at night and during the day from four 1966 RV 



Dolphin cruises. 



Includes tows taken at down and dusk. 



data. More precise sampling is necessary before 

 conclusions can be drawn concerning diurnal 

 distribution at different depths. 



Geographic Distribution 



In general, sand lance larvae were most 

 abundant off southern New England and the 

 region off Delaware Bay (Figure 2). They were 





Figure 2. — Numbers of sand lance larvae per tow taken 

 in day and night tows by transect. 



less common along the northern New Jersey 

 shore and along the Maryland coast to Chesa- 

 peake Bay. South of Chesapeake Bay, they 

 decreased steadily in numbers and were not 

 in samples south of Cape Hatteras. Larval 

 distributions for each cruise are shown in 

 Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6 for shallow and deep 

 tows. Physical data for each cruise are related 

 to larval distribution here. 



During the cruise in early December 1965, 

 no larvae occurred in any of the collections. 

 However, during the first week of December 

 1966, larvae were abundant inshore near 

 Martha's Vineyard and eastern Long Island, 

 N.Y. (Figure 3). They were not found else- 

 where in samples from 2 weeks earlier. The 

 catches of larvae in December occurred in 

 water from 8° to 10 °C, similar to nearshore 

 temperatures from New Jersey north and 

 offshore of southern New England. Salinity 

 in the area of larval occurrence was 32 to 

 33%o over much of the sampling region. 

 Plankton was sparse in the area of capture 

 (<55 to 100 ml/tow). 



During the cruise in January-February, lar- 

 vae occurred in patches throughout the entire 

 area (Figure 4). In shallow tows, none were 

 taken within 15 miles of Long Island (a situa- 

 tion which has occurred before — Richards et al., 

 1963), off Great Egg Inlet, N.J., at the mouth 

 of Chesapeake Bay, nor off the Oregon Inlet, 

 N.C. Larvae were most abundant 40 miles off 

 Montauk Point, N.Y., eastward to Martha's 

 Vineyard. A second area of abundance occurred 

 within 15 miles of the Maryland coast in the 

 water mass moving southward out of Delaware 

 Bay and extended north 40 miles off the New 



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