FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 73, NO. 2 



Table 1. -Collections of menhaden eggs and larvae, east coast of United States. 



Sampling period 



Sampling area 



Occurrences 



Bays and open sounds 

 Bigelow and Schroeder 1953 

 Kuntz and Radcliffe 1917 



Hildebrand and Schroeder 1928 1912-22 



Georges Bank-Gulf of Maine 

 Georges Bank-Gulf of Maine 

 Georges Bank-Gulf of Maine 



Cape Hatteras-Florlda 



Off Chesapeake Bay 

 Off North Carolina 



Gulf of Maine 



Near Woods Hole, Mass. 



Chesapeake Bay 

 Lower Chesapeake Bay 

 Lower Chesapeake Bay 

 Lower Chesapeake Bay 

 Around Long Island 



Block Island Sound 

 Long Island Sound 



Long Island Sound 



Bogue Sound, N.C. 

 Narragansett Bay 



Near Sandy Hook, N.J. 

 Chesapeake Bay 



June— 1 egg, off Martha's Vineyard 

 May— eggs, 130 km off Nantucket 

 June— larvae, off Woods Hole 



Dec. -Feb. —eggs 



Dec. -Mar. —larvae, off North Carolina 



Nov. -Apr. —larvae 



Dec— eggs, patch of several thousands 



Oct. 1900— young fry, Casco Bay 

 Oct. 1915— eggs and larvae, Nantucket 



Sound 

 Aug.— eggs, off Gay Head 

 July— larvae, Woods Hole Harbor 

 Jan. -May— large larvae 

 May— larvae 

 Apr.— larvae 



May-Oct.— eggs 



May-Sept.— larvae 



Fall-larvae (see Wheatland 1956) 



June-Oct.— eggs 



June and Sept. -Dec. —larvae 



May-Oct.— eggs 



June-July and Sept. -Dec. —larvae 



Winter and spring— larvae, common 



May-Aug. and Oct.— eggs 



June, July and Oct. -Feb. (most in Oct.)- 



larvae 

 May-June— eggs 

 Nov. -Dec. —larvae 

 Spring and summer near Solomons, Md. 



eggs 

 Mar.-June and Nov.— larvae, upper 



Chesapeake Bay 



Inlets 



Reintjes and Pacheco 1966 1955-61 



de Sylva et al. 1962 1956-58 



Tagatz and Dudley 1961 1957-60 



Lunz 1965 1964 



Lewis and Mann 1971 1966-68 



Smaller estuaries 



Warfel and Merriman 1944 1942-43 



Massmann et al. 1954 1950-52 

 Pacheco and Grant 1965 ■> 

 Reintjes and Pacheco 1966 > 19=5-61 



Tagatz and Dudley 1961 1957-60 



Pearcy and Richards 1962 1959-60 



Dovel 1967 1965-66 



Wilkens and Lewis 1971 1967-69 



Sept. -June Indian River Inlet, Del. 



all 



all 

 Jan. -Mar. 

 Nov. -Apr. 



all 

 Mar.-Oct. 



Sept. -June 



all 

 all 

 all 

 all 



Indian River Inlet, Del.' 



Beaufort Inlet, N.C. 



Several South Carolina inlets 



Bogue and Beaufort inlets, N.C. Nov. -Apr.— larvae 



Oct. -May— larvae, month of peak occurrence 



varied with year from Dec.-Feb. 

 Nov.-May— larvae 

 Jan. and Apr.-May— larvae 

 Feb. -Mar.— larvae 



Morris Cove, Conn. 

 Five Virginia tidal rivers 



White Creek, Indian River, Del. 



Neuse River, N.C. 

 Mystic River, Conn. 

 Magothy River, Md. 

 White Oak River, N.C. 



July-Nov.— larvae 



Apr.-May— larvae, brackish water 



Nov. -June, most Feb. -June— larvae 



Jan. -June and Sept.— larvae 

 June-July— larvae 

 Mar.— larvae 

 Jan. -Apr.— larvae 



'Larvae emigrating from ocean. 



juveniles overwintering in southern estuaries. 

 Fish range from 50 to 160 mm w^hen they leave the 

 estuaries (June and Chamberlin 1959). 



Recently Mansueti and Hardy (1967) amplified 

 the descriptions of young menhaden and Reintjes 

 (1969) reviewed the biology of the species. 



This paper describes the occurrences of 

 menhaden eggs and larvae in the Dolphin surveys 

 and relates these findings to daylight, tempera- 

 ture, salinity, and depth, and to our understanding 

 of menhaden early life history. 



PROCEDURES 



The eight ichthyoplankton cruises were made at 

 approximately 6-wk intervals from December 1965 

 to December 1966 (Clark et al. 1969). On each cruise 

 92 stations were located along 14 transects from 

 Martha's Vineyard to Cape Lookout (Figure 1). 

 Stations were closely spaced inshore (9.3 km) along 

 the transects and farther apart (27.8 km) offshore. 

 The order that the transects were run and the time 

 during the 24-h workday that stations were oc- 

 cupied varied among the cruises. 



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