Table 3— Population estimates for juvenile English sole in the estuary survey area by date 

 (month/year) and by stratum (1-4). The 95% confidence interval for the total population is ob- 

 tained by adding or substracting the value m parentheses. 



or, more likely, were better able to avoid the nar- 

 row beam trawl. 



Within the estuary, English sole were most nu- 

 merous in May of both years, but the peak of 22.8 

 million in 1984 was more than 3 times higher than 

 the peak of 6.5 million in 1983 (Table 3). Although 

 the distribution of the English sole population within 

 the estuary was highly variable, the bulk of the 

 population was in STR 1 or STR 2 for most months. 

 Along the open coast, the English sole population 

 peaked at the same time and at generally the same 

 levels as the estuary for both years, about 5.9 and 

 23.2 million for 1983 and 1984, respectively (Table 

 4). Comparable populations of young fish occurred 

 in both areas despite the 18 times greater geograph- 

 ic extent of the offshore survey area. 



Recruitment 



Relative recruitment to the two survey areas was 

 measured in terms of populations of 0-age fish. 

 Within the estuarine study area, recently trans- 

 formed (<25 mm TL; Laroche et al. 1982) English 

 sole were observed from April to July in 1983, and 

 in January and from May to August in 1984. Peak 

 abundance of this size range was observed in May 

 of both years, but it is highly likely that early spring 

 peaks were missed since our study lacked adequate 

 coverage of fall, winter, and early spring months. 

 Duration of settlement along the Oregon coast is 

 known to be much longer than observed in our study 

 (Laroche and Richardson 1979; Boehlert and Mundy 

 1987). Along the open coast, settlement seemed to 



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