FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 2 



anchored tidal nets (Graham and Venno, 1968). 

 Catches with this gear provided information on 

 mortality in an estuary (Graham and Davis, 

 1971), condition (Chenoweth, 1970), and sea- 

 sonal feeding (Sherman and Honey, 1971). 

 Coastal salinity, temperature, and currents were 

 measured during zooplankton surveys (Sher- 

 man, 1970) and hydrographic surveys (Graham, 

 1970a, b). 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



Larval herring were sampled in two areas 

 (Figure 1) : A coastal area which extended from 

 the headlands to 20 km offshore (50-fm isobath) 

 along the coast from Cape Ann, Mass., to Machi- 

 as Bay, Maine; and the Boothbay area which 

 extended to 6.5 km offshore (lat 43°45'N) and 

 was bounded by the Sheepscot and Damariscotta 

 estuaries. Collections were made once or twice 

 each season in the coastal area from autumn 

 1962 through spring 1967; and every other week 



in the Boothbay area from autumn 1964 through 

 spring 1967. Additional collections, obtained 

 after 1967, will be cited when pertinent. There 

 were 21 stations in the coastal area until the 

 spring of 1965 when the number was increased 

 to 46 to provide more adequate data. In autumn 

 1966, the area was divided into 30-min squares 

 of latitude and longitude and the squares sub- 

 divided into quarters. The 46 quarters sam- 

 pled on a given cruise were selected randomly. 

 An exploratory winter cruise (1964) was made 

 within the coastal bays and estuaries and two 

 cruises were made in the Boothbay area in early 

 March of 1964 and 1965. In the Boothbay area, 

 samples were obtained in all locations that were 

 navigable for the 13-m vessel, MV Phalarope. 

 Larval herring were collected by the methods 

 listed in Table 1. We captured small larvae in 

 the autumn with a Gulf III sampler (Gehringer 

 and Aron, 1968) and larger larvae in the winter 

 and spring with Boothbay Depressor trawls 

 (Graham and Vaughan, 1966). Catches ob- 



68* 



67" 



J 



Figure 1. — The coastal (hatched) and Boothbay (enclosed) sampling areas along the 

 western coast of the Gulf of Maine. Dots and crosses are station positions; S and D 

 indicate the Sheepscot and Damariscotta estuaries. 



308 



