FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 2 



Figure 2.— Aerial photograph of Goose Creek, May 1972. Note straight edge of northwest shorehne (light area) caused by 

 1970 private dredge and landfill operation. Upper embayment is Jockey Creek. Note dredged channels in both bays and 

 virtually complete eradication of marsh around Jockey Creek. 



1% of the original Goose Creek marsh is still 

 present. 



METHODS AND MATERIALS 



In order to determine what changes occurred 

 in the macrobenthic population in Goose Creek, 

 23 stations were established in the bay, exclusive 

 of the area to be dredged for the deepened 

 channel. Fifteen additional stations were located 

 at 30 m intervals in the path of the proposed 

 channel. 



The present study was initiated 1 yr before the 

 scheduled dredging operation. Since a complete 

 characterization of Goose Creek was necessary 

 before the onset of dredging, it was deemed 



necessary to use a sampling procedure which 

 could cover the whole of Goose Creek once every 

 month. As the western half of the bay is uniform in 

 bottom composition, being composed of deep, 

 gray-black silt over muddy gray sand, there is 

 little need to sample it as extensively as the 

 eastern half of the bay, which is characterized by 

 f'-equent changes in sediment type caused by 

 variegated current flow patterns and topographic 

 variability. Faunistic distribution was found 

 to be dependent on the nature of the sediment, 

 whose characteristics were, in turn, dependent on 

 the erosion and deposition rates of the overlying 

 tidal currents. Consequently, it was decided to 

 divide the bay into zones of high, medium, and 

 low current velocities, sampling each region by 



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