816 



Fishery Bulletin 101(4) 



jLil 



50 ST 



MAMJJASOMDJFMAMJJ 

 1992 1993 



Figure 7 



Histogram of monthly abundance of juvenile white mullet as indicated by catch 

 per unit of effort (CPUE) from semimonthly sampling in La Restinga lagoon from 

 March 1992 to July 1993. The continuous black line presented in the first annual 

 cycle represents the mean monthly rainfall averaged over the period 1985-93. 



composed of individuals that had hatched between June 

 and August 1992. Finally, individuals in the fourth cohort, 

 which first appeared in the lagoon in March 1993, were fish 

 that had hatched in January and February 1993. 



The hatching dates of recruits coincided with periods 

 of increasing upwelling, particularly during January and 

 February of 1992 and 1993 (Fig. 10). The use of increa.sing 

 levels of lambda to fit the smoothing spline increasingly 

 weakened the correlations between predicted and observed 

 values of birth dates and UI index and strengthened the 

 correlations between birth dates and the upwelling index 

 (Table 2). Choosing a lambda value of 10 resulted in r'^ 

 values greater than 0.70 (/'<0.000) between the raw and 

 predicted data series and in an rvalue of 0.41 (P<0.000) 

 between birth date and the upwelling index. Cross-corre- 



lation analysis between these two series revealed that the 

 strongest correlation (r=0.52, P<0.000) occurred when the 

 upwelling index lagged behind birth dates by 8 days and 

 by 46 days. These lag periods reflect the coincidence of the 

 major peak of upwelling with the two peaks of birth dates 

 that are separated by approximately 35 days. Given the 

 estimated 10-day error associated with aging otoliths, the 

 8-day lag cannot be interpreted. 



Discussion 



Our sampling of white mullet in the coastal waters of 

 northeastern Venezuela revealed the presence of mature 

 fish throughout the year, but abundance was lowest 



