804 



Fishery Bulletin 98(4) 



summer and fall months (Wilks approximated F,P<0. 001). 

 The upper river exhibited the highest mean temperature 

 and saHnities usually below 1 ppt. The middle section 

 showed intermediate salinity ( 1-3 ppt), and highly variable 

 temperature and dissolved oxygen conditions. The lower 

 section corresponded to a shallow area with the highest 

 salinity and dissolved oxygen means (Table 3, Fig. 3). Logis- 

 tic regression analysis was used to explore potential rela- 

 tionships between probability of fish relocation within a 

 river-section and corresponding water quality conditions. 



Reward program 



Maryland-DNR, in cooperation with USFWS and the Ches- 

 apeake Bay Foundation, offered a $25 reward to Chesapeake 

 Bay fishermen for the capture and holding of live juvenile 

 Atlantic sturgeon. The program was initiated in Maryland 

 in July 1996 and extended to Virginia waters after Febru- 

 ary 1997. Capture data were documented by USFWS agents 

 and measurements and tag information were recorded. In 

 some instances, juveniles were sacrificed for CWT identi- 

 fication t?i=22). Twelve of these fish, captured between 24 

 October 1996 and 8 January 1997, were made available to 

 us for examination of diet (mean TL=56.1 cm ±7.40 SE; 

 mean weight=823 g ±301.6 SE). Prey were classified at the 

 lowest possible taxonomic level and evaluated according to 

 numerical and volumetric contribution to diet. 



Captured fish were measured for total length in mm 

 (TL), fork length in mm (FL), and weight in g (W). Because 

 all three measures were not consistently taken, we devel- 

 oped the following regressions to interconvert size mea- 

 surements: 



FL = 0.860- 2.01 TL (7-2=0.96, ;!=214) (1) 



log^, VV = -9.25 -^ 2.52 log, TL (r-=0.64, n=211 ) (2) 



Growth was estimated by comparison of size at release 

 ( W„) and size at capture ( W^.) according to the formula 



G, =(ln VV -In W^)//, 



(3) 



where t = days after release. 



Results 



Twenty-six fish were relocated during telemetric surveys 

 at least once after release. The mean duration over which 

 fish were tracked (35 days ±37 SD) and the number of 

 relocations (4 relocations ±3.8 SD) were limited, perhaps 

 owing to egress to the lower river and the Chesapeake 

 mainstem (see "Discussion" section). Fish released at the 



