NOTE Powell et a\ Larval and juvenile fishes off North Carolina 



429 



ity measurements were reviewed for aben'ant data 

 points. Satellite-derived advanced very high resolution 

 radiometer (AVHRR) data (NOAA/NESDIS Coast- 

 Watch node, NMFS Beaufort Laboratory) were used 

 to examine sea surface temperature (SST) during the 

 study period (1-20 September 1994). A nonparamet- 

 ric Kruskal-Wallis test ( SAS Institute, Inc., 1987 ) was 

 used to evaluate differences in fish lengths between 

 gear types, and between days at specific stations. 



Results 



Larval length distributions by gear 



There was a significant difference in length of larvae 

 among gears (Kruskal-Wallace Test, P <0.01). The 



I I Bongo Net 

 ^^ Frame Trawl 

 Neuston Net 



■* 1^ ■- 



V A -- •- 



n 



E 



o o o o o o o 



Length class (mm) 



Figure 2 



Length-frequency distributions by gear of (A) all ich- 

 thyoplankton (excluding leptocephali); and (B) ichthy- 

 oplankton between 8.0 and 12.0 mm in length. 



neuston net and frame trawl collected larger larvae, 

 whereas the bongo net collected smaller larvae 

 (Fig. 2A). The bongo net was more effective in col- 

 lecting larvae <10.0 mm, and the frame trawl and 

 neuston net were more effective in collecting larvae 

 10.0 mm (Fig. 2B). A wide range of size classes was 

 obtained with the neuston net and frame trawl, but 

 catches typically were low (Table 1, Fig. 2). 



Some 40 reef fish taxa were collected (Table 2); 

 approximately 25 with the bongo sampler, 24 with 

 the frame trawl, and 14 with the neuston net. Five 

 families were commonly collected (Table 3), but a 

 size series of only two taxa iAcanthurus sp(p). and 



