SHANKS: SHOREWARD LARVAL TRANSPORT 



35°- 



34° 



78 



L 



76° 



ATLANTIC OCEAN 



Figure L— Map of the study area. The dashed hne running along shore is the 20 m contour and the dashed 

 line running from just to the left of Beaufort Inlet to the tip of Cape Lookout Shoals encloses the study area. 



in the different habitats the manta net was cleaned 

 by towing for 5 to 10 minutes with the cod end re- 

 moved. Most of the plankton was washed from the 

 net by this procedure. For convenience and in order 

 to more accurately sample the relatively small en- 

 vironments studied these plankton tows were made 

 from a 6 m motor boat. Plankton samples were 

 preserved in 5% formalin. 



To assess the vertical distribution of larval types, 

 surface and oblique plankton tows were made on 14 

 June 1985 and 9 June 1986. On 19 June 1986 rep- 

 licate [n = 3) surface, oblique, and bottom tows were 

 made. The dimensions of the oblique and bottom sled 

 nets were 0.55 x 0.55 m and 0.80 x 0.45 m respec- 

 tively. Both nets had mesh of 0.333 mm, and flow 

 meters on the nets were used to measure the volume 

 of water filtered. The procedure for the oblique tows 

 was as follows: with the boat moving slowly forward 

 the net was lowered rapidly to near the bottom 



(about 10 to 20 m) and then, maintaining a wire 

 angle of about 60°, the net was hauled slowly to the 

 surface. The bottom tows were made by lowering 

 the sled straight to the bottom with the boat station- 

 ary; as the boat moved slowly forward, the line was 

 paid out until a scope of 1 to 3 was achieved; tows 

 lasted 5 to 10 minutes; at the end of the tow the boat 

 was backed down onto the net; and the net was 

 pulled vertically back to the surface. Both the 

 oblique and bottom nets were open when they 

 passed through the surface and were thus contam- 

 inated by some surface plankton. 



Organisms were sorted and identified with the aid 

 of a dissecting microscope. A variety of sources were 

 used to identify larval fish (Fritzsche 1978; Hardy 

 1978; Johnson 1978; Martin and Drewry 1978; 

 Fahay 1983). Larval fish were also sorted by devel- 

 opmental stage which were defined following the 

 terminology and descriptions in Ahlstrom et al. 



705 



