Table 3. — Cumulative frequency of juvenile (<30 cm) and adult (>30 cm) witch 

 flounder catches over 20 m depth intervals. Catches of a No. 41.5 Yankee 

 otter trawl (8 sets) and a No. 36 Yankee Shrimp trawl (48 sets) combined for 

 the northern Esquiman Channel area (lat. 50°N). 



Table 4.— Results of Kolmorgov-Smirnoff two sample test on each data set. Level of significance 



used was « = 0.05. 



Fishing gear 



NAFO Total Total 



Divi- no. no. D Table Significant 



Year sions juveniles adults statistic value at « = o.05 



1,348 0.4270 0.0753 Not significant 



185 0.4770 0.2582 Not significant 



203 0.2220 0.0977 Not significant 



727 0.2936 0,0868 Not significant 



302 0.4448 0,0810 Not significant 



shallower than juveniles in the 100-200 m range, 

 they are also found in sufficient numbers in all 

 depths >200 m (Table 1). LaFleur and Lussiaa- 

 Berdou (1982) research surveys in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence using a Yankee 41.5 otter trawl found 

 juveniles in the 200-300 m depth range and, while 

 supporting Powles and Kohler's (1970) depth separa- 

 tion hypothesis also noted that even at depths >300 

 m, a significant proportion of adult witch flounder 

 were caught. W. R. Bowering (Department of Fish- 

 eries and Oceans, St. John's, Newfoundland, pers. 

 commun. 1986) has found that adult witch flounder 

 in NAFO Division 2J3KL also exhibit two peak 

 concentrations: one at 101-200 m and a second one 



in depths >300 m. That adult witch flounder are not 

 concentrated during summer months is the reason 

 why an economical commercial fishery only occurs 

 during winter months (Powles and Kohler 1970; 

 Bowering and Pitt 1974; Bowering and Brodie 

 1984). 



Catches of witch flounder in the 1981 shrimp trawl 

 survey of the two deepwater bays in NAFO Divi- 

 sion 3Ps shows that although adults are usually 

 average shallower than juveniles, they are also dis- 

 persed across deeper depth zones (Table 1). This sug- 

 gests that in confined areas of deepwater bays, 

 distribution patterns of adult witch flounder is more 

 concentrated than in large open areas like the Gulf 



152 



