Sakuma and Larson: Distribution of Citharichthys sordidus and C stigmaeus 



521 



than in deep trawls with a trend for increased abun- 

 dance in shallow trawls versus deep trawls (Table 4; 

 Fig. 6). Stage-3 and stage-4 individuals were most 

 abundant in mid-depth trawls; stage-3 individuals 

 showed a tendency for decreased abundance in shal- 

 low trawls versus mid-depth trawls (Table 4; Fig. 6). 

 Stage-5 individuals were distributed relatively evenly 

 throughout the water column, with a tendency to- 

 ward increased abundance with increased depth 

 (Table 4; Fig. 6). In contrast to Pacific sanddabs, of 

 the four metamorphic stages, only stage-5 individu- 

 als of speckled sanddabs were abundant in the deep 

 trawls (Table 4; Fig. 6). Thus, speckled sanddabs gen- 

 erally occurred shallower in the water column than 

 did Pacific sanddabs (Fig. 6). 



Within each species of sanddab, abundances of ad- 

 jacent metamorphic stages were correlated over sta- 

 tions (Table 5). However, the correlations decreased 

 among more dissimilar stages, indicating changes in 

 distribution with advancing metamorphosis (Table 

 5). The only two stages in either species that were 

 not significantly correlated with each other were 

 stages 2 and 5 (Table 5). Results of the correlation 

 analysis provided a substantial basis for overlaying 

 only stage-2 and stage-5 abundances onto the salin- 

 ity contours in Figures 8 and 9. 



CTD salinity contours showed that many of the 

 patterns at the surface were still noticeable at 30 m 

 (Fig. 7; and Sakuma, 1992). Therefore, only the sur- 

 face salinity contours were used because they pro- 



vided the widest horizontal spatial coverage (salin- 

 ity at 30 m was not available for nearshore stations 

 because of the shallow bottom depth). 



