FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 71, NO. 1 



however, were most abundant in the upper estu- 

 aries throughout their larval life, and therefore 

 probably maintained themselves there by adapt- 

 ing to the circulation of water within the estu- 

 aries. These larvae disappeared from the catches 

 very rapidly during April and May, which con- 

 tributed to the rapidly declining spring catch. 

 By this time they were approaching the juvenile 

 stage and, being benthic fish, probably settled 

 to the bottom and were not available to the sam- 

 pling gear. 



The remaining species (Merluccius bilinearis, 

 Sebastes marintis (Figure 5C), Cyclopterus 

 lumpus, Limanda ferruginea (Figure 5E) , Syng- 

 nathus fuscus, Scopthalmus aquosus (Figure 

 5H), Ulvaria subbifurcata, Enchelyopus cimbri- 

 us, and Tautogolabrus adspersus (Figure 5L) ) 

 were present but not abundant in the spring and 

 summer, suggesting that the estuaries were not 

 their primary nursery areas. Possibly the num- 

 bers of spawning adults of these species were 

 low in the bays and estuaries, or, as most of 

 these species lay pelagic eggs, the eggs were 

 dispersed before the larvae hatched. 



Some species did not belong to either of the 

 two above-mentioned groups: Anguilla rostrata 

 (Figure 4D), a catadromous, and Osmerus 

 mordax (Figure 5F), an anadromous species; 

 Aspidophoroides monopterygius, which spawns 

 later than the winter-early spring group, was 

 not as common in the upper estuaries; Ammo- 

 dytes ame7-icanus; and the Gadidae. 



COMPARISON WITH OTHER AREAS OF 

 THE NORTHWEST ATLANTIC 



The results of surveys in other areas of the 

 northwest Atlantic indicate the overall distri- 

 bution of the three more abundant larvae of 

 the Boothbay region. Cottid larvae occurred 

 throughout the surveyed areas. Myoxocephalus 

 aenaeus was dominant in the Mystic River estu- 

 ary (Pearcy and Richards, 1962), Block Island 

 Sound (Merriman and Sclar, 1952), and Long 

 Island Sound (Wheatland, 1956) ; M. octodecem- 

 spinosus occurred in the oflfshore areas (Marak 



and Colton, 1961: Marak, Colton, and Foster, 

 1962; Marak, Colton, Foster, and Miller, 1962) ; 

 and M. scorpius occurred in the Gulf of Maine 

 (Fish and Johnson, 1937) and appears from my 

 survey to be dominant along the central Maine 

 coast. The larvae of Pholis gunnellus appear 

 to be more abundant in the estuaries than off- 

 shore. They were one of the most abundant 

 species in the Mystic estuary (Pearcy and Rich- 

 ards, 1961) where they also concentrated in the 

 upper estuaries. They were less abundant in 

 the more open Narragansett Bay (Herman, 

 1963), rare offshore (Marak and Colton, 1961; 

 Marak, Colton, and Foster, 1962 ; Marak, Colton, 

 Foster, and Miller, 1962) , and absent from Long 

 Island (Wheatland, 1956) or Block Island 

 Sounds (Merriman and Sclar, 1952). Larvae of 

 the Liparidae were taken in small numbers off- 

 shore (Marak and Colton, 1961 ; Marak. Colton, 

 and Foster, 1962; Marak, Colton, Foster, and 

 Miller, 1962) and in the Gulf of Maine (Fish and 

 Johnson, 1937) but not at all south of Cape Cod. 



Pearcy and Richards (1962) found a dominant 

 winter-early spring group of larvae in the Mystic 

 estuary, but the more abundant species differed 

 from those in the central Maine coast. The dom- 

 inant species in the Mystic estuary were Pseudo- 

 pleuro7iectes americanus, Microgadus tomcod, 

 and Myoxocephalus aenaeus. In Narragansett 

 Bay (Herman, 1963) the demersal winter-early 

 spring group of larvae was less evident with only 

 Myoxocephalus sp. dominant, and with many 

 more pelagic forms. An abundance of pelagic 

 forms might be expected in Narragansett Bay 

 because the Bay is characteristically more like 

 the open ocean than the smaller estuaries. 



The spring and summer species of larvae were 

 abundant enough in southern New England 

 (Pearcy and Richards, 1962; Herman, 1963) 

 to create a second summer peak in larval abun- 

 dance that was absent in my survey of the Booth- 

 bay region. This was probably due to the absence 

 of larvae of such species as Stenotovius chrysops, 

 Anchoa mitchilli, Cynoscion regalis, and Tautoga 

 onitis which have a more southern distribution 

 and are only occasionally taken as adults along 

 the Maine coast (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953). 



112 



