PEARCY and MYERS: LARVAL FISHES OF YAQUINA BAY 



Samples were also collected with the bongo 

 nets (0,233 and 0.571 mm mesh) in the open 

 ocean off Yaquina Bay from June 1969 to June 

 1970, often within a day of the bay sampling. A 

 total of 113 step oblique tows was made at four 

 stations 1, 3, 5, and 10 miles from the coast. 



Volume of water filtered during each tow 

 was estimated by flowmeters in the mouth of 

 the nets. TSK meters were mounted on the 

 inside wall of the bongo frames. Meters were 

 calibrated periodically by towing them over a 

 measured distance. Samples were preserved in 

 the field with Formalin. In the laboratory entire 

 samples were sorted for fish larvae with the aid 

 of 2V4 -power illuminated magnifier. Fish eggs 

 were sorted from the 1960-1968 CB samples. 



SPECIES COMPOSITION 



Larval fishes representing 17 families were 

 found in Yaquina Bay during the 11-yr studies. 

 These included 45 distinct types of larvae, 22 of 

 which were identified to species (Table 1). Most 

 families were represented by only one or two 

 species or types. The family Cottidae, however, 

 was represented by 14 different larval types, 

 by far the most for any family. The family with 

 the next largest number of types was Pleuronec- 

 tidae with 6 identified species. 



THE 11-YR SERIES 



Relative Abundances 



Table 2 summarizes the occurrence and 

 average density of different fish larvae collected 

 during the 11-yr CB series at Buoy 21. Two 

 species, Clnpea harengiix pallasi (Pacific her- 

 ring) and Lepidogobius lepidus (bay goby), 

 were clearly the most abundant larvae. Com- 

 bined they accounted for 90% of all the fish 

 larvae collected in the 393 samples. 



These two species were consistently the co- 

 dominants during all years of the sudy (Table 

 3). C. h. pallasi ranked first in abundance during 

 8 yr. L. lepidus ranked first in 3 yr and second 

 in the 8 yr that C. h. palla.^i was dominant. 

 Cottus asper (prickly sculpin) ranked third in 

 abundance. Leptocottus armatus (Pacific stag- 

 horn sculpin), Gobiidae type 1, and Hypomesus 

 pretiosus (surf smelt) alternated in the fourth, 

 fifth, and sixth positions. Average number of 



Table 1. — Species composition of fish larvae from 

 Yaquina Bay from all samples examined, 1960-1970. 



Clupeidae 



Cltipca hurciiKiis pallasi 

 Engraulidae 



EnKiaitli'' morilax 

 Osmeridae 



H\ potncsus pii'iiosus 

 Gobiesocidae 



Gohicsox nwandricus 

 Gadidae 



Microiiadti^ proxiniWi 

 Gasterosteidae 



Aiilorhynchus ttavidus 

 Syngnathidae 



Svni;iHilhm i;iisci>lincan<\ 

 Stichaeidae 



LumpeiuiS sugilta 



Annplarchiis sp. 



ChiroUiphis sp. 



2 unknown types 

 Pholidae 



Pholis (irnara 

 Ammodytidae 



Ainmodyles hexaptenis 

 Gobiidae 



LcpuloKohiiis It'dpiitiis 



1 unknown type 

 Scorpanenidae 



SchasU'\ spp. 

 Hexagram mi doe 



Hi'xaiirainini)^ sp. 



Ophioddii eU>ui;aiiis 

 Cottidae 



Leplocollus armalus 



Conns asper 



Scarpaenichthys nianuoratus 



Enophrys bison 



HeniiU'pidoiiis spp. 



9 unknown types 

 Agonidae 



2 unknown types 

 Cyclopteridae 



3 unknown types 

 Bothidae 



Cilharichihys sp. 

 Pleuronectidae 



Psellichthys melanosticiiis 

 Platichlhys stellalus 

 Glyiocephaliis zuchinis 

 Isopsetta isolepis 

 Parophrys vetulus 

 Lyopsetta exilis 



these larvae per m'' varied from year to year, but 

 no obvious long-term trends in the relative 

 abundance of these species suggested environ- 

 mental changes or species succession. (Similar- 

 ly, Frolander et al. [in press] found no evidence 

 for persistent changes of zooplankton abun- 

 dances in Yaquina Bay over the same time 

 period.) 



In order to learn if all six of the common 

 species were more abundant in some years 

 than others, rank correlations were calculated 

 from annual abundances in Table 3. Cliipea h. 

 pallasi and L. lepidus were both caught in 

 large numbers in 1967. but the Coefficient of 

 Concordance, W, (Tate and Clelland, 1957) 

 indicated little agreement among ranking of 

 vears (P > 0.2). In other words, there was no 



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