252 



Fishery Bulletin 93(2), 1995 



seek and capture prey. Although surface aggregations 

 of zooplankton are common at frontal and conver- 

 gence zones, the neuston may in general have a re- 

 duced biota, at least during the daytime. The rela- 

 tively large size and well-developed form that char- 

 acterizes most fish larvae occurring in the neuston 

 of the western Gulf of Alaska and elsewhere is possi- 

 bly an adaptive advantage in terms of finding and 

 consuming suitable quantities of food. The data of 

 Kendall and Dunn (1985) and Rugen 3 indicate that 

 hexagrammid and cottid larvae (obligate members 

 of the neuston) are abundant in the study area dur- 

 ing all seasons. Given that peak production of cope- 

 pod nauplii, a dominant larval fish food, occurs dur- 

 ing summer in this region (Cooney, 1986), the above 

 larvae are likely to encounter a diminished biota in 

 the neuston during fall and winter months in par- 

 ticular. Because of their relatively large size, how- 

 ever, a wide diversity of prey organisms are likely to 

 be available to them in the neustonic layer and this 

 diversity may compensate for the lower prey densi- 

 ties of copepod nauplii. 



Acknowledgments 



This study would not have been possible without the 

 foresight and assistance of Art Kendall of the Alaska 

 Fisheries Science Center. We appreciate the efforts 

 of the crew and scientists aboard the various research 

 vessels that collected the samples and the expert 

 assistance of the staff of the Polish Plankton Sorting 

 Center in sorting and initial identifications of the 

 samples. Susan Picquelle and Rod Hobbs assisted 

 with the data analysis. We thank Art Kendall, Jeff 

 Napp, Morgan Busby, Brenda Norcross, Bruce Wing, 

 and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments 

 on an earlier version of this manuscript. 



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