FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 85, NO. 1 



of larval sablefish. As low productivity and the pre- 

 dominance of small copepods were also observed 

 during a previous El Nifio year (Fulton and LeBras- 

 seur 1985), these planktonic conditions may be fairly 

 typical of El Nino events off Oregon and Washing- 

 ton. A comparison of the diet in 1980 and 1983 

 suggests that a decrease in the size of copepods in- 

 gested by sablefish larvae in 1983 may be one of the 

 principal effects of El Nino conditions on the diet 

 of this species. While it is possible that some ener- 

 getic deficit may be imparted because of this dietary 

 shift, the actual effects on the growth of larval sable- 

 fish are at present unknown. Although the diet in 

 1983 was reflective of the plankton, corresponding 

 plankton data were not available for 1980, thus it 

 is unclear how closely the diet resembled the plank- 

 ton in 1980. However, if we assume that the cope- 

 pods that were ingested by larvae are indicative of 

 the copepods that were available, as was the case 

 in 1983, then we may infer that larger copepods 

 were more readily available during 1980, in the 

 absence of anomalous conditions. 



While a reduction in zooplankton biomass might 

 affect sablefish larvae of all sizes, a paucity of large 

 copepods would likely have the greatest effect on 

 larvae >20.6 mm for two reasons: 1) large larvae 

 repeatedly ingested the largest prey (Grover and 

 011a 1986) and 2) they were the only size class that 

 ingested a substantial volume of large copepods. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



We wish to thank Art Kendall for valuable discus- 

 sions, encouragement, and continued interest in this 

 project. We would also like to thank two anonymous 

 reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of 

 this manuscript. 



This work was supported by the Northwest and 

 Alaska Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, NOAA Contract Nos. 83-ABC-00045, 84- 

 ABC-00127, and 85-ABH-00025. 



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