358 



Fishery Bulletin 97(2), 1999 



2 3 4 5 6 7 



Age 



Figure 11 



Von Bertalanffy growth curves for selected Pleuronectiformes occurring in western North Atlantic 

 temperate estuaries. Values for species other than Symphurus plagiusa were derived from the 

 literature. 



to note, it is only the smallest-size and shortest-lived 

 flatfishes (S. plagiusa, T. macidatus, and probably 

 E. microstomus ) that complete their life cycles within 

 Chesapeake Bay. Under an environmental regime 

 with a large component of unpredictable, nonselec- 

 tive mortality, an organism is hypothesized to allo- 

 cate a larger portion of its resources to reproductive 

 activities (Adams, 1980). Life history parameters, 

 such as rapid growth, small body size, early age at 

 maturity and relatively short life span, characteris- 

 tics featured in these small-size flatfishes complet- 

 ing their life cycles within Chesapeake Bay, are con- 

 sistent with those observed for other fish species that 

 survive in and successfully exploit seasonally dy- 

 namic and highly unpredictable environments. 



Acknowledgments 



This study represents part of a M.A. thesis (by Mark 

 R. Terwilliger) at the School of Marine Science, Vir- 

 ginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William 

 and Mary. We thank Joy Dameron, Deane Estes, Eric 



Farrar, Pat Geer, Paul Gerdes, Dave Hata, Mike 

 Land, Todd Mathes, Dee Seaver, Mike Seebo, and 

 Chandell Terwilliger of VIMS for assisting in field 

 collections and for providing data and specimens. We 

 extend our appreciation to Herb Austin for allowing 

 us access to sources of unpublished data archived in 

 the VIMS Fisheries Department. This study bene- 

 fited from financial support arranged by Herb Aus- 

 tin, Jack Musick, Gene Burreson, and Joe Loesch 

 (VIMS). Additional financial support was provided 

 by the VIMS minigrant committee, the student con- 

 ference fund of the College of William and Mary, and 

 by the American Institute of Fisheries Research Bi- 

 ologists' student conference fund. Chandell Terwil- 

 liger provided moral support throughout the course 

 of the study. Pat Geer, Dave Hata, Steve Bobko 

 (ORST), and Mike Murphy (FL DEP) provided valu- 

 able insight on statistical analyses. A special thanks 

 to Pat Geer for his help with trawl survey data analy- 

 sis and manipulation. Tom Sminkey (FL DEP) pro- 

 vided useful instruction on use of the Biosonics Op- 

 tical Pattern Recognition System, and Dave 

 Harshany (FL DEP) helped with image production 



