FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL 85, NO. 3 



'5 - 



in 55 



2 



35 



:25 



DIVISION 2J 



(204) I'lOj. 



(121 (131 (II (13) 

 — * • 



_l 1 I 1 I I I I I 1 1- 



(231 



_J L_ 



_1 1 1 L_ 



DIVISION 3K 



•i* (10) (13) (4) (12) 



_l 1 . I I I L. 



10 



25 



45 



35 



DIVISION 3L 



1286) 1578 



- 30g 



-25 2 



20 



- 10 



-° ^°° ^^ .^ .^ .°° ^°° ^- .- 



•f «P ^0 \0 V° V° yO vO o 



x°^ ^0^ ^O^ ►O^ ^° fcO^ ^o^ ^o^ ^o^ 

 DEPTH INTERVAL (M) 



O O O O O 



1 ^^ 



TEMPERATURE (°C) 



Fl(;i!KK 5. — Mean numbers of witch flounder caught per 30-min set per depth and temperature interval in NAFO Div. 2J, 3K, and 

 3L from 1977 to 19S3 with 95'; confidence limits, (Numbers in parentheses are number of sets observed.) 



was not a marked decline in mean catch beyond 

 the peak with substantial numbers of witch floun- 

 der being caught in depths up to 700 m. 



Distribution of witch flounder by bottom tem- 

 perature is also presented in Figure 5. Because of 

 the very low catches in Div. 2J, it is difficult to 

 identify discrete optimum temperatures. There 

 was a slight increasing trend, however, from l.T- 

 2.0°C to peak at 3.r'-4.0"C and decline beyond 

 that. In Div. 3K witch flounder were caught in 



bottom temperatures from <0.0° to 6.0°C. There 

 was a marked increasing trend from the 0.1°- 

 1.0°C interval to peak at a temperature range of 

 2.r'-3.0''C beyond which the mean catch per set 

 declined. The highest mean catch per set occurred 

 at 5.1°-6.0°C. However, this resulted from one 

 large catch in one of the two sets at this interval 

 giving extremely wide 957r confidence limits. In 

 Div. 3L an increasing trend was evidenced simi- 

 lar to that shown for Div. 3K, however, it was 



616 



