68 



Fishery Bulletin 



1990 



Materials and methods 



Data collection 



Specimens were collected July 1985 through May 1987, 

 excluding the periods from December 1985-April 1986 

 and December 1986-April 1987 when Atlantic spade- 

 fish were absent from collection sites (Fig. 1). Most of 

 the specimens less than 200 mm total length were pro- 

 vided by other research programs which obtained them 

 as bycatch in trawl tows. 



Collections were from three different habitat strata 

 (Fig. 1). Stratum 1 included estuarine habitats. The fish 

 in this stratum were primarily young-of-the-year and 

 were collected by a variety of gear, including dipnets, 

 seines, stopnets. and trawl nets. Stratum 2 consisted 

 of shallow nearshore habitats less than 20 m in depth 

 with bottoms consisting primarily of mud or sand and 

 shell, with rare patches of live bottom (sponges and soft 

 corals, low rock relief). The fish in stratum 2 were all 

 collected by trawling. Stratum 3 contained fish col- 

 lected primarily by spearfishing while SCUBA diving 

 on artificial reefs located off South Carolina's coast and 

 on the Murrell's Inlet jetties. Some specimens from the 

 artificial reefs were collected by hook-and-line using 

 Stomolophus meleagris as bait. The artificial reefs and 

 the jetties were similar habitats in that all were man- 

 made structures providing relatively high relief and all 

 were covered with a variety of fouling organisms such 

 as algae, sponges, corals, hydroids, sea anemones, bryo- 

 zoans, and ascidians. The fish from stratum 3 were all 

 adults. 



Fish (n = 832), subsampled from 84 collections, were 

 sexed, weighed to the nearest gram, and total length 

 (TL) and standard length (SL) measured to the nearest 

 millimeter. Subsamples, consisting of 177 stomachs and 

 233 gonads, were excised from a representative por- 

 tion of the collections, preserved in buffered 10% 

 seawater formalin, and later transferred to 50% iso- 

 propanol. Otoliths (sagittae) were removed from 643 

 specimens and stored in 95%i ethanol. 



Stomach contents 



Stomachs of Chaetodipteriis faber are well-defined 

 structures, and contents of the digestive tracts between 

 the pharynx and the pyloric sphincter were examined 

 using compound and stereoscopic microscopes. Stom- 

 achs were scored for fullness and food items were 

 sorted, identified to the lowest practical taxa, and 

 counted. Colonial organisms, such as hydroids and 

 bryozoans, and multiple fragments of individual species 

 were counted as single individuals unless numbers 

 could be estimated from the fragments by counting 

 structures such as eyes or legs. After removing excess 

 water by blotting on absorbent paper, the volume of 



-vjLillle Rii 



• STRATUM 1 

  STRATUM 2 



• STRATUM 3 



^\^^^ Charleston Harbor 



l^j-^* SI- Helena Sound 

 ""^^■TZ::^^::^* ''<"' Royal Sound 



' -y'A ■'' Cal.boque 



^' • _ Sound 





Figure 1 



Positions of collection sites in South Carolina for Oiiuiodipteriif. 

 fnber. Symbols indicate general collection areas, and some indicate 

 more than one collection in a particular area, ("ircles (•) represent 

 estuarine sites (stratum 1). .s<)uares (■) represent shallow nearshore 

 sites with sandy bottoms (.stratum 2). and stars (•) represent ar- 

 tificial reef habitats (stratum 3). 



