FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 2 



persed across the estuary from the mainland 

 since salinities are sometimes reduced to brack- 

 ish in the estuary. 



The stabilization pond of the Interstate Paper 

 Corp. at Riceboro provided a unique study hab- 

 itat. Fishes were collected on 12 August 1969, 

 14 April 1970, 2 June 1970, and 6 July 1970. 

 Fishes that were intentionally introduced in 

 1968 and 1969 and subsequently collected by 

 seining include the largemouth bass, bluegill, 

 and warmouth. Personnel of the paper company 

 also collected adults of the following introduced 

 species: brown bullhead (Ictalurus nebulosus) 

 and redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) . I 

 collected four specimens that appeared to be hy- 

 brids of the bluegill and redear sunfish. Golden 

 shiners are native to the area but since they 

 were not collected until June and July 1970, 

 they may have been introduced by fishermen. 

 Native species include the mosquitofish, which 

 was abundant, and the least killifish, which was 

 represented by one specimen. I collected juve- 

 niles of warmouth, sunfish, mosquitofish, golden 

 shiner, and bass that were spawned in the pond. 



DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF 

 COASTAL FISHES 



The 168 coastal fish species exhibit a variety 

 of distribution patterns in relation to the de- 

 scribed habitats. The 86 species that were re- 

 stricted to one or two habitats included large 

 numbers of (1) freshwater species, (2) elasmo- 

 branchs and teleosts that were primarily ma- 

 rine and stenohaline, and (3) rare species. The 

 30 species that occupied three habitats included 

 only one elasmobranch {D. sabina) , three fresh- 

 water species, and some uncommon and steno- 

 haline species. The large number of species in 

 these categories indicates that a majority of the 

 coastal species occupy only a relatively small 

 number of the coastal habitats. However, the 

 low diversity estuarine habitats (habitats 5, 7, 

 8, and 9) may be widespread and important nur- 

 sery grounds to estuarine species that are impor- 

 tant as sport, commercial, or forage fishes, e.g., 

 tarpon, anadromous shads, Atlantic menhaden. 



white catfish, tidewater silverside, silver perch, 

 spotted sea trout, weakfish, spot, Atlantic croak- 

 er, striped and white mullets, and southern 

 flounder. 



Euryhaline species were defined as species 

 that occur in both fresh water and pure seawater 

 (Gunter, 1956). Although many of the species 

 studied are euryhaline, none were found in all 

 nine habitats. Six species occurred in all hab- 

 itats except the freshwater habitat, and all of 

 these sometimes occur in fresh water. These 

 widely adapted species are the Atlantic men- 

 haden, mummichog, spotfin mojarra, silver 

 perch, spot, and striped mullet. The mosquito- 

 fish, croaker, and white mullet occurred at seven 

 habitats. The mosquitofish was absent from the 

 deepwater habitats. The white mullet and 

 croaker were absent only from low-salinity hab- 

 itats. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Much support for this study was derived from 

 a contract with the Georgia Water Quality Con- 

 trol Board with funds provided by the Interstate 

 Paper Corp. of Riceboro, Ga. The National Sci- 

 ence Foundation provided funds for the ship sup- 

 port. 



Mrs. Joyce Swanberg identified representative 

 plants using Radford, Ahles, and Bell (1968) but 

 she used Muenscher (1944) to identify Elatine. 

 G. C. Miller identified Prionotus pectoralis, now 

 a synonym of P. salmonicolor. Dr. C. L. Hubbs 

 identified some Diapterus olisthostomus, Eucin- 

 ostomus argenteus, and E. melanopterus; Dr. E. 

 Herald, some Syngnathns fuscus and S. louisia- 

 nae; Dr. C. R. Gilbert, Evorthodus lyricus; and 

 R. W. Heard, Jr., many invertebrates. 



Valuable field assistants included P. M. Glenn, 

 J. C. Conyers, W. B. Sikora, J. Switten, and C. 

 Durant. Capt. J. Rouse competently navigated 

 the RV Kit Jones through the precarious estu- 

 arine rivers. Mrs. Lorene Gassert drew the il- 

 lustrations. 



Drs. F. J. Schwartz, G. Gunter, and C. E. 

 Dawson made many valuable comments on the 

 manuscript. 



352 



