Stanley and Wilson: Fish abundance near oil and gas platforms 



155 



Volume Enclosed 

 (•100,000 m 3 ) 



Figure 3 



Response surface plot of water depth, 

 volume of water enclosed by oil and 

 gas platforms, and pelagic fish abun- 

 dance from the multiple regression of 

 principal component scores for catch 

 data from logbook participants. Note: 

 stippled area represents realistic values 

 of volume of water enclosed at various 

 depths for oil and gas platforms. 



tion of the number of legs x number of crossmembers 

 indicated that bluefish and red drum were most abun- 

 dant near platforms with complex construction. Based 

 on the plot of the orthogonal components of month, 

 bluefish and red drum catch rates were highest in the 

 early spring and late winter (Fig. 1). A positive regres- 

 sion coefficient for fishing method and negative regres- 

 sion coefficients for the presence of echosounders and 

 graph recorders (Table 5) indicated that highest catches 

 of bluefish and red drum occurred while trolling and 

 that sophisticated electronic equipment did not increase 

 catch rates. 



