FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 87. NO. 3, 1989 



plankters occupying the nearshore zone in the 

 San Onofre vicinity will, on average, tend to be 

 transported alongshore, but not out of the near- 

 shore zone. Those plankters occupying the 

 epibenthos, where currents are minimal, are 

 especially Hkely to be retained in the nearshore 

 zone (e.g., Barnett et al. 1984; Jahn and Laven- 

 berg 1986; Barnett and Jahn 1987). At times, the 

 nearshore plankton distributions at San Onofre 

 are disrupted (Barnett and Jahn 1987), and dur- 

 ing those times the neritic fish larvae may be 

 transported seaward. 



Tidal mixing and nutrient recycling in the 

 nearshore zone allows high rates of phytoplank- 

 ton production near shore (Petersen et al. 1986; 

 Barnett and Jahn 1987). This production can be 

 utilized directly by fish larvae (e.g., Lasker 

 1975, 1981), or indirectly in the form of microzoo- 

 plankton and small macrozooplankton, both of 

 which occur in high concentrations near shore 

 (e.g., Lasker 1978; Barnett and Jahn 1987). The 

 nearshore zone appears to provide a good feed- 

 ing environment for fish larvae, on average. 

 However, it appears that this resource is largely 

 utihzed only by the nearshore species, since the 

 larvae of more offshore species are relatively 

 rare in the shallow coastal waters (e.g., Gruber 

 et al. 1982; Barnett et al. 1984). Lasker (1975) 

 demonstrated that the food resources of the 

 nearshore zone may be critical to the first-feed- 

 ing larvae of the broadly distributed species 

 Engraulis mordax, and Theilacker (1986) 

 showed that first-feeding larval Trachurus sym- 

 metricus, a more offshore species, were less vul- 

 nerable to starvation in nearshore habitats 

 around the islands off the CaHfornia coast than 

 they were in offshore waters. However, larval 

 T. symmetricus are uncommon in shallow 

 coastal waters and in general there is little evi- 

 dence that the shallow coastal zone provides an 

 important feeding resource for the larvae of 

 offshore fish species. 



The observations that the larvae of the off- 

 shore fish species apparently make little use of 

 the food resources of the nearshore zone, and 

 that among the larvae of the neritic species the 

 distributions of the larvae and their prey do not 

 closely correspond, suggest that food is not the 

 primary influence in determining nearshore 

 larval fish distributions. What the primary influ- 



San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Mar. Rev. Comm. 

 Doc. No. 77-09. Marine Review Committee of the California 

 Coastal Commission, 6.31 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 

 94105. 



ence (or influences) is remains to be determined. 

 It does seem reasonable to conclude, at least, 

 that larval fish distributions within the near- 

 shore zone are a function of the advantages con- 

 ferred by remaining in this environment. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



This study was funded by the Marine Review 

 Committee, Santa Barbara, CA. The Marine Re- 

 view Committee does not necessarily accept the 

 results, findings, or conclusions stated herein. A 

 large number of people — too many to cite indi- 

 vidually — were involved in the collection and 

 laboratory processing of the samples reported 

 here. We wish to thank all these people for their 

 contributions to the study, and to thank Michael 

 Marika in particular for his substantial contribu- 

 tions to every aspect of the study. H. J. Walker, 

 Jr., M. Shaw, and two anonymous reviewers 

 offered comments that greatly improved the 

 manuscript. 



LITERATURE CITED 



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