FISHERY BULLETIN; VOL. 73, NO. 1 



SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC 

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Figure 9. — Index of abundance (geometric mean) of Raja erinacea captured in each subarea during summer 

 1969 within temperature intervals of 1°C. See Figure 3 for explanation of fractions and whole numbers. 



Lawrence as deep as 371 m. Temperatures at 

 depth of capture ranged from -1.2° to 4.8°C in 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1.1° to 12.7°C off 

 northeastern Nova Scotia, and 2° to 15°C from 

 southern Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras. Only 

 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was R. ocellata 

 taken at temperatures below its previously 

 recorded temperature range of 1.2°C (Tyler 1971) 

 to 19°C (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953). 



Raja ocellata is a Virginian to boreal species 

 whose center of abundance is on Georges Bank 

 and in the northern section of the mid-Atlantic 

 Bight. In both subareas it was found year-round 



over almost the entire temperature range for the 

 areas (Figures 12-14). It was captured only at 

 the lower part of the temperature range recorded 

 for the southern section of the mid- Atlantic Bight 

 and at higher temperatures recorded for the Nova 

 Scotian shelf. 



This species was widespread in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, off northeastern Nova Scotia, and 

 the offshore banks, and it was not as abundant 

 as R. erinacea in the southern mid-Atlantic 

 Bight. All reports of/?, erinacea from the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence and most records of it from 

 northern Nova Scotia probably refer ioR. ocellata. 



122 



