LAROCHE and DAVIS: NORTHERN PUFFER 



Table 2. — Length-frequency of young-of-the-year northern puffer. 



young-of-the-year by early September. Both 

 sexes reached sexual maturity by the second 

 growing season. In the spring the gonads of 

 fish as small as 88 mm contained either milt 

 or ova. Running ripe males were first obtained 

 during the last week of May. Females were 

 gravid during May but from June through the 

 first week of July they were found in all three 

 conditions, gravid, ripe, and spent. Few run- 

 ning ripe females were taken. Males were run- 

 ning ripe longer than females and may spawn 

 a greater number of times. 



By late July gonads of most fish taken from 

 the mouth of the York River, Mobjack Bay, 

 and lower Chesapeake Bay were spent and in 

 recovery stages. However, males taken from 

 the mouth of the Rappahannock River in mid- 

 August were still running ripe, and many fe- 

 males were gravid. Welsh and Breder (1922) 

 took ripe females along the New Jersey coast 



from July 30th to August 27th. Wheatland 

 (1956:296-297) reported northern puffer spawn- 

 ing from late May until August in Long Island 

 Sound. Time and dui-ation of northern puffer 

 spawning appears variable within Chesapeake 



Bay and along the middle Atlantic coast. By 

 September gonads of puffers from lower Chesa- 

 peake Bay were in various stages of recovery. 



Neither milt nor developing ova were visible 

 during October and November. 



The ratio of males to females in May and 

 November was approximately 1:1. However, 

 females were consistently more abundant 

 throughout the summer and early fall. During 



this period the ratio of males to females was 

 1:3. Males were least abundant during the 



peak of spawning in June and July. This change 

 in the sex ratio may be related to reproductive 

 behavior. 



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