CHAO and MUSICK: LIFE HISTORY OF JUVENILE SCIAENID FISHES 



(Merriner 1976). Pearson (1932) described the 

 winter trawl fishery off North Carolina and cited 

 higher total catches of weakfish from area B 

 (southwest of Cape Hatteras) than from area A 

 (northeast of Cape Hatteras) in deeper waters. It is 

 possible that most young-of-the-year and larger 

 weakfish that leave the York River move south- 

 ward to their wintering ground off Cape Hatteras. 

 In spring, weakfish disperse from the wintering 

 ground. Some fish move north and spawning may 

 occur from late spring to summer along the coast 

 from North Carolina to New York. 



Buirdiella chrysoura (Lacepede) — Silver Perch 



EARLY LIFE HISTORY IN THE YORK 

 RIVER. — Silver perch were present from April to 

 December and were most abundant from August 

 to October (Figure 13). Total catches were reduced 

 in 1973 and 1974. Young-of-the-year silver perch 

 first entered the catches in July and most silver 

 perch left the river in November. Yearlings may 

 enter the river as early as April and most left the 

 river in November. There were no silver perch 



taken from January to March during the present 

 study (1972-74). Pooled length frequencies from 

 August to October, 1972 to 1974, indicated that 

 silver perch were most concentrated in the lower 

 part of the York River (Figure 14) and larger 

 specimens tended to stay in the channel (Figure 

 15). The 30.5-m beach seine caught young-of-the- 

 year occasionally but the 15.25-m seine rarely 

 caught any silver perch. 



OTHER STUDIES.— Silver perch occur along 

 the U.S. coast from New York to Texas. The sea- 

 sonal distribution pattern is similar in all Atlantic 

 coastal states (Table 3). Young-of-the-year silver 

 perch were first caught in bottom trawls during 

 June or July. Size of the smallest young-of-the- 

 year silver perch during a given month decreases 

 as latitude of the nursery ground increases on the 

 Atlantic coast and west coast of Florida (Table 3). 

 Silver perch are present almost all year round 

 south of Chesapeake Bay (Table 3), which may be 

 due to the higher salinity or temperature of those 

 study areas. The embryonic development of silver 

 perch from Beaufort, N.C., was described by Kuntz 



TABLE 3. — Growth of silver perch, Bairdiella chrysoura, from different estuarine. areas 

 along U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. 



^ear: PI, plankton net; Pu. puchnet; S, seine; T, trawl. 



2 Age-group: represents smallest group of young-of-the-year first taken from January on. other fishes 

 (including overwintering young-of-the-year) are included in age-group I Parentheses indicate that the boundary 

 of age-groups and I is indistinguishable. 



673 



