DAHLBERG: ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF GEORGIA COASTAL FISHES 



Scombridae - mackerels and tunas 



King and Spanish mackerels are often caught 

 offshore by sport fishermen during the warm 

 months. Young Spanish mackerel (Scomberom- 

 orus maculatus) occasionally ranged into the 

 high marsh, beach, and lower reach habitats, but 

 they were rarely collected by seine or trawl be- 

 cause of their speed. One king mackerel {S. 

 cavalla) was also collected along the beach (Mil- 

 ler and Jorgenson, 1969). 



Stromateidae - butterfishes 



The butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus) and 

 harvestfish (Peprilus alepidotus) are primarily 

 marine fishes that occasionally occur in trawl 

 catches in the middle and lower reaches and in 

 beach seine hauls. They have a wide temper- 

 ature tolerance as they were collected through- 

 out the year. Butterfish did not occur at salin- 

 ities below 19.5%o and harvestfish below 22.S%c. 



Triglidae - searobins 



Four species of searobins {Prionotus carolin- 

 us, P. evolans, P. scitulus, and P. tribulus) were 

 present in trawl collections in the lower reach 

 throughout the year, and all but P. carolinus 

 were trawled in the middle reach. Three of 

 these, excluding P. evolans, were occasionally 

 taken in the beach habitat (Miller and Jorgen- 

 son, 1969). A salinity of 15.3%c for P. evolans 

 was the lowest I found occupied by searobins. 

 One P. salmonicolor was collected in Sapelo 

 Sound. 



ORDER PLEURONECTIFORMES 



Bothidae - lefteye flounders 



The lefteye flounders were represented by 

 eight species that were found only in habitats 

 1 to 5 (Table 2) . Species of Paralichthys reach 

 a large size and two of them are important sport 

 and commercial fishes whereas the four other 

 bothids are small. The ocellated flounder (An- 

 cylopsetta quadrocellata) and windowpane 

 (Scophthalmus aquosus) migrated into the low- 



er and middle reaches during the winter and 

 spring, December or January to May. Water 

 temperature ranges were 8.0° to 26.0 °C for the 

 ocellated flounder and 8.8° to 25.7° for the win- 

 dowpane. These species were seasonally re- 

 placed by the bay whiff (Citharichthys spilop- 

 terus) , which was occasionally trawled in the 

 lower and middle reaches from May to October 

 at a temperature range of 26.0° to 31.5°C. Strag- 

 glers also occurred in the beach and oligohaline 

 creek habitats. 



The fringed flounder (Etropus crossotus) was 

 common in trawls in the lower reach throughout 

 the year. There are records from the beach hab- 

 itat, and a 16-mm specimen was seined in the 

 upper reach when the salinity was 0.5%o. 



Two species of Paralichthys occur primarily 

 offshore and rarely move inshore. The gulf 

 flounder (P. alblgutta) was trawled only three 

 times. The broad flounder (P. squamilentus) 

 was represented by only one juvenile from the 

 beach habitat. 



The summer flounder (P. dentatus) and south- 

 ern flounder (P. lethostigma) enter the com- 

 mercial and sport fisheries of the coast. The 

 summer flounder was most abundant in the lower 

 reach and was rarely trawled in the middle reach. 

 The southern flounder was much more abundant 

 at the middle reach stations than in the lower 

 reach. Its tolerance or preference for lower sa- 

 linities was also demonstrated by its distribution 

 up the estuary to Riceboro Creek where it was 

 often collected in fresh water. 



Soleidae - soles 



Thehogchoker (Trinectes maculatus) is a ma- 

 rine or brackish-water fish that often spends 

 considerable time and travels considerable dis- 

 tances in fresh water. It was common from the 

 lower reach to the freshwater habitat. The hog- 

 choker was present throughout the year in Rice- 

 boro Creek where the water was usually fresh. 



Cynoglossidae - tonguefishes 



The blackcheek tonguefish (Symphurus pla- 

 giusa) was rarely collected outside of the lower 

 and middle reaches where it was one of the most 



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