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optimal habitats where YOY bluefish may choose to remain 

 resident for longer periods of time. The lower rates of re- 

 capture in both years and areas (estuary and ocean) in our 

 study may in part be attributable to the fact that coded 

 wire tags are not detectable by fishermen. 



The very low level of tag returns from the ocean in our 

 study (0.04%) makes it difficult to discern patterns of habi- 

 tat use with this approach. This may be due to the fact that 

 sampling with seines in the ocean was largely limited to the 



relatively shallow portions of the surf zone and it appears 

 that YOY bluefish also use deeper portions of the coastal 

 ocean (Fig. 2). In addition, the lack of returns could be due to 

 more extensive movements on ocean beaches in relation to 

 the estuary — a point supported by the fact that the sporadic 

 nature of bluefish captures during the intensive sampling 

 in 1997 and 1998 ( Fig. 4 ) and in subsequent years ( Rowe et 

 al., in review). In addition, the same pattern of reasonable 

 recapture rates in this estuary and low or no recaptures in 



