Table 3. — Size by season of commercial species offish and crustaceans in Central Tampa Bay — Area II, December 1961- 



November 1962 



•From Springer and Woodburn (1960). 



by month and area to compare abundance of im- 

 mature animals (table 6). Catches included were 

 from four selected trawl stations and two selected 

 seine stations in each of the four sampling areas 

 fished monthly. The catches of these six fishing 

 operations in each area during 1 month represent 

 one unit of effort. Thus, 72 hauls (12 standard 

 units of effort) took place in each of the four areas 

 during a 12-month period. The data allowed 

 comparison of abundance between individual 

 species by season and area (fig. 3). For this 

 estimate, effort expended and numbers of speci- 

 mens caught per species were combined for 

 3-month intervals; winter, spring, summer, and fall. 



DISCUSSION 



Most of the species landed by Gulf of Mexico 

 commercial fisheries inhabit estuaries as immature, 

 developing forms. It is assumed, therefore, that 

 these estuaries are prime suppliers for the Gulf 

 fisheries. Power (1962b) stated that five species — 

 menhadan, shrimp, crabs, oysters, and mullet — 

 comprised a catch of 1,131 million pounds or 89.3 

 percent of the Gulf commercial catch in 1960. 

 Our investigations showed that 23 commercially 

 important species including the dominant ones 

 listed by Power (1962b) occupy Tampa Bay while 

 immature. 3 All of these species are caught as 



'Oysters are included in this numher but were not collected by sampling 

 gear. 



IMMATURE SPECIES IN TAMPA BAY 



373 



