201 



Abstract-Young-of-year (YOY) blue- 

 fish (Pomatomus saltatrix) along the 

 U.S. east coast are often assumed to 

 use estuaries almost exclusively during 

 the summer. Here we present data 

 from 1995 to 1998 indicating that YOY 

 (30-260 mm FL) also use ocean habi- 

 tats along the coast of New Jersey. An 

 analysis of historical and recent data on 

 northern and southern ocean beaches 

 (0.1-2 ml and the inner continental 

 shelf (5-27 m) during extensive sam- 

 pHng in New Jersey waters from 1995 

 to 1998 indicated that multiple cohorts 

 occurred (June-August) in every year. 

 When comparable collections of YOY 

 were made in the ocean and in an 

 adjacent estuary, the abundance was 

 1-2 orders of magnitude greater on 

 ocean beaches during the summer. 

 The YOY were even more abundant 

 in ocean habitats in the fall (Septem- 

 ber-October), presumably as a result 

 of YOY leaving estuaries to join the 

 coastal migration south. During 1999 

 and 2000, YOY bluefish were tagged 

 with internal sequential coded wire 

 microtags in order to refine our under- 

 standing of habitat use and movement. 

 Few (0.04%) of the fish tagged on ocean 

 beaches were recaptured; however, 

 2.2% of the fish tagged in the estuary 

 were recaptured from 2 to 27 days after 

 tagging. Recaptured fish grew quickly 

 (average 1.37 mm FL/d). On ocean 

 beaches YOY fed on a variety of inverte- 

 brates and fishes but their diet changed 

 with size. By approximately 80-100 mm 

 FL, they were piscivorous and fed pri- 

 marily on engraulids, a pattern similar 

 to that reported in estuaries. Based on 

 distribution, abundance, and feeding, 

 both spring- and summer-spawned 

 cohorts of YOY bluefish commonly use 

 ocean habitats. Therefore, attempts to 

 determine factors affecting recruitment 

 success based solely on estuarine sam- 

 pling may be inadequate and further 

 examination, especially of the contribu- 

 tion of the summer-spawned cohort in 

 ocean habitats, appears warranted. 



Use of ocean and estuarine habitats by 

 young-of-year bluefish iPomatomus saltatrix) 

 in the New York Bight* 



Kenneth W. Able 

 Peter Rowe 



Marine Field Station 



Institute of Manne and Coastal Sciences 



Rutgers University 



800 c/o 132 Great Bay Blvd. 



Tuckerton, New Jersey 08087 2004 



E-mail address (for K, W. Able): able@imc5.rutgers,edu 



Mark Burlas 



us Army Corps of Engineers 



Proiect Biological Monitonng Program, CENAN-PL-EA 



26 Federal Plaza 



New York, New York 10278-0090 



Don Byrne 



New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 



Nacote Creek Research Station 



PO Box 418 



Port Republic, New Jersey 08241 



V/00C5 no.i o.'X'fc'iorjrapn.c insiiwiion 

 Librcry 



APR 2 8 2003 



Wooas i!o.«i, aa o;i543 



Manuscript accepted 3 September 2002. 

 Manuscript received 31 December 2002 

 at NMFS Scientific Publications Office. 



Fish. Bull. 101:201-214 (2003). 



Bluefish {Pomatomus saltatrix) are an 

 important component of recreational, 

 and to a lesser degree, commercial fish- 

 eries along the east coast of the U.S. 

 Catches of this species peaked in the 

 late 1970s and early 1980s and have 

 declined consistently since then (Klein- 

 MacPhee, 2002). As a result, the Atlan- 

 tic States Marine Fisheries Commission 

 has established priority research needs 

 for this species, including studies of 

 recruitment (KlineM. 



The available literature indicates that 

 there are multiple cohorts of young-of- 

 year (YOY) bluefish, which result from 

 spring spawning in the South Atlantic 

 Bight (south of Cape Hatteras) and 

 summer spawning in the Middle At- 

 lantic Bight (between Cape Hatteras 

 and Cape Cod), but their relative con- 

 tribution is variable and still under 

 discussion (see review by Juanes et al., 

 1996; McBride et al., 1993; Smith et 

 al., 1994; Hare and Cowen, 1996; Able 

 and Fahay, 1998; Munch and Conover, 

 2000). The YOY are assumed to be es- 

 tuarine-dependent (McHugh, 1966) and 

 a worldwide review also indicates that 

 estuaries are important for this widely 



distributed species (Juanes et al., 1996) 

 although little is known of their move- 

 ments within estuaries and between 

 estuaries and the adjacent ocean (Lund 

 and Maltezas, 1970; Morton et al., 1993J. 

 Along the east coast of the U.S., numer- 

 ous studies have demonstrated that 

 YOY of spring- and summer-spawned 

 cohorts use estuaries as habitat, includ- 

 ing those from Rhode Island (McBride 

 et al., 1995), Long Island (Nyman and 

 Conover, 1988; McBride and Conover, 

 1991), New Jersey (McBride and 

 Conover, 1991; Rountree and Able, 

 1992a, 1992b, 1993; Able and Fahay, 

 1998), and North Carolina and South 

 Carolina ( McBride et al., 1993 ), and that 

 size at estuarine ingress is at approxi- 

 mately 40-100 mm FL. However, one of 

 the most comprehensive treatments of 



* Contribution 2003-05 of the Rutgers Uni- 

 versity Institute of Marine and Coastal 

 Sciences, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. 



' Kline, L. L. 1997. Atlantic State Ma- 

 rine Fisheries Commission prioritized res- 

 earch needs in support of interjuris- 

 dictional fisheries management, 189 p. 

 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commis- 

 sion, Washington, D.C. 



