Doyle et al.: Neustonic ichthyoplankton in the western Gulf of Alaska 



249 



terns among the larval species. Groups 1 and 2 to- 

 gether were characterized by highest densities of 

 most species (Table 5); these sectors were located 

 primarily around Kodiak Island and particularly in 

 the region between Kodiak Island and the Shumagin 

 Islands to the southwest. Total larval abundance was 

 very low in Group-3 sectors (Table 5 1 which were 

 concentrated mainly to the northeast of Kodiak Is- 

 land and to a lesser extent around the Shumagin 

 Islands. Group-4 sectors displayed an offshore dis- 

 tributional trend, mainly seaward of Kodiak Island. 

 Larval abundance was moderately high for this 

 group, enhanced by highest mean density of 

 Hemilepidotus spp. and Pleurogrammus mono- 

 pterygius (Table 5). Most of the sectors in Group 5 

 were distributed close to Kodiak Island, and the 

 coastal half of the region immediately southwest of 

 Kodiak, along the Alaska Peninsula. Mean larval 

 density was also moderately high for this group; 

 Theragra chalcogramma, Hexagrammos deca- 

 grammus, and Ammodytes hexapterus were the pre- 

 dominant species. Group 6 included only eight sec- 

 tors, five of which occurred close to Kodiak Island 

 and three in the northeastern extremity of the sam- 

 pling area. Mean densities of T. chalcogramma and 



A. hexapterus were highest for this group (Table 5) 

 owing to their occurrence in extremely high num- 

 bers in one of the sectors (different one for each spe- 

 cies) along the southern half of Kodiak Island (Fig. 

 5). Hexagrammos decagrammus was the only spe- 

 cies to occur in sectors belonging to Groups 7 and 8 

 (Table 5) which were scattered randomly through- 

 out the sampling area. This species was unusual in 

 that its distribution was widespread in contrast with 

 the other taxa that were confined primarily to two 

 or three of the sector groups. 



Discussion 



Our results indicated that species diversity and den- 

 sity of fish eggs in shelf waters in the western Gulf 

 of Alaska were essentially the same in the surface 

 and subsurface zone. Theragra chalcogramma eggs 

 were exceptionally abundant and, along with eggs of 

 several pleuronectid species, accounted for >90 c 7c of 

 all eggs taken in both bongo and neuston samples. 

 Except for T. chalcogramma, pelagic eggs tended to 

 be scarce in the neuston where the predominant mode 

 of spawning among fish species is demersal (Kendall 



