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Fishery Bulletin 93(3). 1995 



studies are warranted to understand the possible 

 significance of the region as a nursery. 



In southern New Jersey, spawning and nursery 

 areas are somewhat better delineated. The larvae 

 clearly occur on the inner continental shelf off New 

 Jersey (Figs. 3 and 4; Kendall, 1972), but there is no 

 evidence of larvae in estuaries and bays in New Jer- 

 sey (Croker, 1965; Himchak, 1982; Witting 3 ) or Dela- 

 ware (Pacheco and Grant, 1965; Wang and Kernehan, 

 1979). The apparent absence of larvae in estuaries 

 and the occurrence of larvae and small juveniles (<20 

 mm TL) at Beach Haven Ridge suggest that settle- 

 ment may initially occur on the inner continental 

 shelf and that some individuals may remain there 

 while some move into estuaries. Larvae 15-17 mm 

 were reported in late July near Hereford Inlet, New 

 Jersey (Allen et al., 1978), but further details are 

 not available. The only other prior reports of small 



juveniles in New Jersey estuaries are of 25-mm in- 

 dividuals from Great Egg Harbor (Bean, 1888), 20- 

 mm individuals from Raritan Bay (Nichols and 

 Breder, 1927) and 25-35 mm specimens from lower 

 Delaware Bay (Wang and Kernehan, 1979). The oc- 

 currence of juveniles in the York River in Chesapeake 

 Bay (Musick and Mercer, 1977) was based on indi- 

 viduals that may have overwintered on the continen- 

 tal shelf and reentered the estuary as occurs in New 

 Jersey In other Chesapeake Bay habitats black sea 

 bass (some of them 140-165 mm) were more abundant 

 in eelgrass, Zostera marina, both day and night, than 

 in adjacent unvegetated areas (Orth and Heck, 1980). 

 Our observations suggest that suitable summer 

 nursery habitats, either on the continental shelf or 

 in estuaries, are presumably related to the occurrence 

 of some type of bottom structure, such as peat and 

 shell accumulations. This is further substantiated 



