FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 73. NO. 1 



The summer survey was conducted during July 

 and August, and the autumn survey during 

 October and November (Table 1). Waters of inter- 

 mediate depths of both the mid-Atlantic Bight 

 and Georges Bank reach their maximum tempera- 

 tures in October (Bigelow 1927, 1933; Schopf 

 and Colton 1966). 



Length frequencies by strata sets revealed 

 that small to large specimens of each species 

 were found together and all length sizes w^ere 

 pooled for the distributional analyses of each 

 species. Small specimens of R. erinacea and 

 R. ocellata were seldom captured. The young of 

 these two species may lie outside the sampling 

 region or may be less vulnerable to the gear used. 

 Richards et al. (1963) also noted the absence of 

 young R. erinacea on the fishing grounds of 

 Block Island and Long Island sounds where the 

 larger individuals were abundant. 



Charts showing the distribution by strata, and 

 histograms shovdng the distribution by tempera- 

 ture were illustrated for the Albatross IV cruises 

 of 1969. Only the four most abundant species 

 {R. erinacea, R. ocellata, R. senta, and/?, radiata) 

 were included. Distribution by temperature and 

 depth zones was illustrated for two species 

 {R. eglanteria and R. garmani) captured during 

 the VIMS survey of the Chesapeake Bight. 



Raja eglanteria 



Raja eglanteria was captured from the southern 

 section of the mid- Atlantic Bight to about midway 

 along the eastern coast of Florida. A few indi- 

 viduals were taken in the southern section of 

 the mid-Atlantic Bight on all Albatross IV 

 cruises, except for summer 1969 and winter 1970. 

 During the VIMS survey of the Chesapeake Bight 

 R. eglanteria was more abundant in shoal water 

 during the spring and summer than during the 

 autumn and winter (Figure 3) and was more 

 abundant in the Chesapeake Bight during the 

 summer and autumn than in the winter and 

 spring. It was captured between 5° and 26°C in 

 the Chesapeake Bight and was most abundant 

 between 9° and 20°C (Figure 4). South of Cape 

 Hatteras it was taken from 9° to 27°C. Over its 

 entire range, it was most abundant at depths 

 less than 111 m. Raja eglanteria was captured 

 only at 9 of the 676 stations which were in water 

 deeper than 110 m. It was taken at 5 of the 



43 deeper stations during the VIMS survey but 

 at only 4 of the 633 deeper stations south of Cape 

 Hatteras, thus it has a greater tendency to 

 inhabit deeper water in the northern part of its 

 range. 



Raja eglanteria, a Carolinian species in the 

 sense of Johnson (1934) and Hedgpeth (1957), 

 occurs north of Cape Hatteras all year but is 

 abundant there only during the warmer months. 

 Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) stated that it is 

 most abundant from the sublitoral zone to about 

 55 m. However, Edwards et al. (1962) captured 

 it in 280 and 329 m off Cape May, N.J. during 

 the wdnter. In autumn, R. eglanteria leaves the 

 embayments and shallow areas of the mid- 

 Atlantic Bight (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953; 

 Schwartz 1961; Massman 1962; Fitz and Daiber 

 1963; Schaefer 1967) and moves offshore and 

 southward. Raja eglanteria was not captured in 

 the mid-Atlantic Bight during the summer 

 Albatross IV cruise probably because the species 

 is concentrated then at depths less than 27 m. 

 Apparently many individuals that summer in 

 the southern part of the Chesapeake Bight move 

 around Cape Hatteras during the autumn or early 

 winter. The individuals south of Cape Hatteras 

 inhabit slightly warmer water as suggested by 

 Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) and do not appear 

 to move into deeper water during the winter. 

 Dahlberg and Odum (1970) reported that this 

 species is resident year-round in Georgia 

 estuaries. 



Raja garmani 



Raja garmani was captured in deep water from 

 Nantucket Shoals to the Straits of Florida. 

 Between Nantucket Shoals and Cape Hatteras it 

 was most abundant in the southern section of 

 Chesapeake Bight. Over the Chesapeake Bight 

 it was found between 33 and 196 m and gen- 

 erally deeper than 73 m (Figure 5), and appeared 

 to move shoreward in the summer. In the Chesa- 

 peake Bight R. garmani was captured at tem- 

 peratures of 6° to 17°C and was most abundant 

 bewteen 9° and 13°C (Figure 6). Between Cape 

 Hatteras and Georgia it was found in 66 to 123 m 

 at 17°C; off Georgia and northern Florida it was 

 captured in 77 to 155 m at 11° to 19°C. From 

 northern Florida to the Straits of Florida it 

 occurred in 99 to 366 m at 17°C, and all but one 

 of the captures were in 183 to 366 m. 



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