468 



Fishery Bulletin 105(4) 



Conclusions 



It appears that goosefish in the Middle Atlantic Bight 

 spend -5-10 weeks in the plankton as larvae and pelagic 

 juveniles. As they change from pelagic larvae and juve- 

 niles to benthic juveniles (ca. 30-85 mm TL from June 

 to November), they undergo major changes in body 



shape, pigmentation, and diet. Some of these life history 

 changes are reflected in the microstructure of lapillar 

 otoliths. Overall, changes in these suites of characteris- 

 tics are most evident before and during settlement. Most 

 of the events in the early life history of goosefish appear 

 to occur without dependency on water depth or location 

 across the continental shelf Larvae, pelagic juveniles, 

 and benthic juveniles tend to be most abundant on the 

 mid to outer continental shelf, but they are also 

 widely distributed inshore, indicating that they 

 are habitat generalists. 



Acknowledgments 



L. Despres, A. Richards, M. Jech, V. Nordhal, 

 P. Berrien, and V. Guida provided access to dis- 

 tribution and abundance data. K. Lang assisted 

 with otolith interpretation. Others who provided 

 access to data include J. Musick, B. Cowen, M. 

 Sullivan, B. Steves, L. Van Guelpen, C. Wenner, 

 K. Hartel, D. Clarke, and M. Burlas. This 

 research was supported in part by the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — Rutgers 

 University Cooperative Marine Education and 

 Research (CMER) program, by NMFS Northeast 

 Fisheries Science Center, and by the Institute 

 for Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS), Rut- 

 gers University. This is Institute of Marine and 

 Coastal Sciences contribution number 2007-2. 



Total length (mm) 



Figure 6 



Change in diet (A, B) and habitat (C, D) of young-of-the-year 

 goosefish iLophius americanus) with increasing total length 

 (TL). Diet changed from mostly invertebrates (dotted line I to 

 mostly fish (solid line), whether expressed as percent frequency 

 of occurrence (A) or percent weight in stomach contents (B). 

 Habitat, determined from stomach contents, changed as a func- 

 tion of goosefish sizes (TL). Prey in stomach was expressed as 

 frequency of occurrence (C) and percent weight (D). Prey habitats, 

 based on knowledge of prey life history, were classified as either 

 benthic (solid line), pelagic (large dotted line), or indeterminate 

 (small dotted line). 



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