FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 3 



have been reported in local plankton collections 

 as follow^s: off Nova Scotia (Dannevig, 1919); over 

 Georges Bank (Marak and Colton, 1961); in Block 

 Island Sound (Merriman and Sclar, 1952). Saus- 

 kan and Serebryakov (1968) discussed the dis- 

 tribution of silver hake eggs and larvae but 

 limited their sampling and discussion to areas 

 east of our 1966 sampling area. 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



We conducted eight cruises aboard the RV 

 Dolphin from December 1965 to December 1966. 

 On each cruise, we sampled 92 stations arranged 

 on 14 transects between Martha's Vineyard, Mass. 

 and Cape Lookout, N.C. (Figure 1). The station 

 arrangement allowed us to sample from nearshore 

 to the 183-m (100-fathom) contour along each 

 transect. We scheduled cruises to occur at 6-wk 

 intervals, and the average cruise occupied 17 

 days. We sampled four transects from Martha's 

 Vineyard to New Jersey on a supplemental cruise 

 in September 1966. Dates and sampling sequences 

 and locations of collecting stations listed to the 

 nearest 0.8 km (0.5 nautical mile) are contained 

 in Clark etal. (1969). 



We used loran, radar and, where possible, visi- 

 ble ranges to position the Dolphin on station. 

 Routine work on station involved the use of a 

 bathythermograph to obtain temperature profiles, 

 a stem thermometer to measure surface tempera- 

 tures, and a Beckman^ RS-5 portable salinometer 

 to obtain salinities and temperatures from the 

 surface to the maximum plankton sampling 

 depth. In water deeper than the length of the 

 salinometer cable, we used Frautschy water 

 bottles and measured the salinities of these 

 samples with a hydrometer kit. Temperature and 

 salinity profiles resulting from the survey are 

 found in Clark et al. (1969). 



We chose the Gulf V high-speed plankton 

 sampler (Arnold, 1959) to overcome many of the 

 problems inherent in sampling ichthyoplankton. 

 It samples at 5 knots, thus allowing capture of 

 organisms capable of avoiding slower nets. Its 

 large mouth opening provides large quantities of 

 eggs and larvae per tow and, hence, samples with 

 high reliability for comparative purposes. Flow- 

 through characterisitcs of the net prevent exten- 

 sive damage to larvae. Finally, the Gulf V is rug- 

 gedly built and requires a minimum of shipboard 



W '»■ 



'■'Reference to trade names does not imply endoresement by 

 the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



Figure 1. — RV Dolphin survey, December 1965 to December 

 1966. Location of transects and collecting stations. 



maintenance. Our sampler (Figure 2) consists of a 

 conical net of 0.33-mm (0.013-inch) Monel wire 

 with 12 meshes/cm (30 meshes/inch) and an 



814 



