432 



Fishery Bulletin 93(3), 1995 



were 8-10 mm NL but most were <8 mm NL. The 

 larvae were distributed across much of the mid-At- 

 lantic Bight continental shelf; the greatest abun- 

 dance occurred between Cape Hatteras and Delaware 

 Bay (Fig. 3). At the northern limit of occurrence, off 

 New Jersey and Long Island, larvae were most abun- 

 dant on the inner half of the continental shelf. Only 

 a few larvae were found north and east of the east- 

 ern end of Long Island (July, Fig. 3). A single 6.4- 

 mm larva was collected on Georges Bank in Novem- 

 ber 1982. During weekly night-time sampling in the 

 Great Bay estuary at a site just inside Little Egg 

 Inlet, New Jersey (Table 1; Fig. 2), larvae were never 

 collected during the period from 1989 to 1991 (Wit- 

 ting et al. 3 ). 



3 Witting, D. A., K. W. Able, and M. P. Fahay. Marine Field Sta- 

 tion, Institute of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers Univ., 



Tuckerton, NJ 08087. Unpubl. data. 



Temporal and spatial distribution of benthic 

 juveniles 



Benthic age 0+ individuals smaller than 25 mm TL 

 were collected from both inner continental shelf 

 (Beach Haven Ridge) and estuarine (Great Bay) habi- 

 tats from July through October (Figs. 4-6). Collec- 

 tions from these areas indicate that two length modes 

 occurred during the summer and fall of 1992. The 

 first mode appeared in late July and could be fol- 

 lowed through the fall when the fish have reached 

 lengths >50 mm TL. The second mode appeared at 

 the inner shelf site in late September at sizes >10 

 mm TL. This group reached an apparent minimum 

 size of 30 mm TL by the fall (Fig. 4). 



Movement out of the estuary in the fall is indi- 

 cated by the reduction in the number of age 0+ indi- 

 viduals by November-December (Figs. 4-6). This 

 same pattern of movement out of the estuary also 

 was reflected in the catch per unit of effort (CPUE) 



