FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 86, NO. 2 



odicity in P. saltatrix. Finally, the spawning sea- 

 son(s) of YOY bluefish recruiting to New York is 

 determined by ageing and back-calculating to the 

 date of first ring deposition. 



METHODS 



Seine Collections 



The temporal abundance and length-frequency 

 distribution of YOY bluefish was estimated by 

 seining 2-4 times per month from April to Octo- 

 ber at several sites on Long Island and in the 

 Hudson River (Fig. 1). In 1985 and 1986, three 

 sites in Great South Bay on the south shore of 

 Long Island were sampled: Smith Point County 

 Park, Fireplace Neck, and the Carmans River. 

 Seining was conducted with a 0.6 cm mesh, 30 m 

 net set from shore, either on foot or from a small 

 boat. Water temperature was recorded at each 

 site and date. In 1986, a site on the north shore of 

 Long Island, Setauket Harbor, was also sampled. 

 A few samples were taken in the fall by angling 

 with rod and reel. All specimens were frozen for 

 later measurement of fork length (FL) and 

 weight, and extraction of otoliths. 



Additional specimens captured in 1986 from 

 Jamaica Bay and the Hudson River were pro- 

 vided by the New York Department of Environ- 

 mental Conservation (NYDEC). Their sampling 



was conducted with a 60 m seine (1.2 cm mesh) set 

 from a boat. 



Otolith Preparation and Analysis 



The sagittae were mounted concave side down 

 on a glass microscope slide with cyanoacrylate 

 (instant glue). Two layers of masking tape were 

 applied on either side of the otolith. The slide was 

 then turned upside-down and sanded on a strip of 

 wet 1200 grit wet-dry sandpaper. The masking 

 tape ensured that the otolith was sectioned on a 

 consistent plane and helped prevent grinding 

 past the nucleus. Once the nucleus was reached, 

 the otolith was polished on wet felt, using levi- 

 gated alumina polishing compound. Three repli- 

 cate counts of each otolith were made under a 

 Zeiss'* compound microscope with transmitted po- 

 larized light at 125-312X. If the three counts dif- 

 fered by more than 10% (which occurred in about 

 1 out of every 10 otoliths), an additional count 

 was made and the outlier discarded. The three 

 final counts were then averaged. The total length 

 of each otolith was measured (nearest 0.1 mm) 

 with a dissecting microscope using an ocular 

 micrometer. 



^Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



7 4 "loo' 



73° |00 



i 



N 



SOUTH BAY 



JAMAICA BAY 



ATLANTIC OCEAN 



73°]00' 



72 °|00' 



Figure 1. — Map of the study area with sampling locations cis indicated. 



238 



