FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 78, NO. 4 



T. carolinus per seine haul was 0.8 fish between 

 1500 and 1800 h. 



DISCUSSION 



Species Composition 



The ichthyofauna of the Horn Island surf zone 

 resembles that of other surf zone habitats within 

 the Gulf of Mexico. Using similar collecting gear, 

 Gunter (1958) reported that over a 3-yr period 

 T. carolinus and H. pensacolae ( = H. jaguana) 

 were the numerical dominants from the surf zone 

 ofMustang Island, Texas. McFarland{ 1963), using 

 a much larger seine (193 m long with 1.9 cm mesh), 

 found that Mugil cephalus and Atlantic threadfin, 

 Polydactylus octonemus, were dominant by weight 

 and number, respectively, of the same area. While 

 fishes collected by McFarland were generally >100 

 mm, many of the same species were collected by 

 Gunter (1958) and in our study as larvae and 

 juveniles. 



Springer and Woodburn (1960) described a 

 faunal assemblage for the surf habitat (exposed 

 beach) near Tampa Bay, Fla., which was very simi- 

 lar to that of Horn Island. Har en gula jaguana was 

 the numerically dominant species collected during 

 the warmer months, followed numerically 

 by Lagodon rhomboides and Menticirrhus littor- 

 alis. 



Although a numerically dominant species in the 

 present study, Anchoa lyolepis has never been re- 

 ported as common within a Gulf of Mexico coastal 

 surf habitat. Gunter (1958) reported that A. 

 lyolepis was taken only occasionally in the surf 

 zone ofMustang Island, and Naughton and Salo- 

 man (1978) found it to be rare in a western Florida 

 surf area. Springer and Woodburn (1960) collected 

 only A. hepsetus and A. mitchilli from exposed 

 beaches near Tampa Bay. Daly (1970) found A. 

 nasuta (synonymized with A. lyolepis by 

 Whitehead 1973) to be uncommon on the western 

 tip of south Florida, although it ranges from Cape 

 Hatteras, N.C., into the Gulf of Mexico through 

 the West Indies to the Gulf of Venezuela (Daly 

 1970). In Mississippi Sound, Christmas and Waller 

 (1973) occasionally collected A. nasuta of 36-59 

 mm SL in higher salinity water (20.0-35.51). 

 Their data, based on several years of observation, 

 indicated that A. nasuta occurred only in the 

 summer and fall and was never abundant. 



In comparing latitudinal variation of surf zone 

 ichthyofaunas Gunter (1958) suggested that the 



major species occupying the Texas beach were the 

 same or cognates to species observed in North 

 Carolina which were cognates to those reported 

 from New England beaches. Springer and Wood- 

 burn (1960) acknowledged that certain similari- 

 ties existed within broad geographical ranges; 

 however, they pointed out that many dissim- 

 ilarities existed between temperate and tropical 

 faunas within the eastern United States. 



Between-study comparisons are made difficult 

 due to differences in sizes of collecting gear and 

 sampling designs. For instance, McFarland (1963) 

 stated that the small clupeids, particularly the 

 scaled sardine and engraulids, were undersam- 

 pled because his collecting gear generally elimi- 

 nated fishes <40 mm SL. However, for the warm- 

 temperate to tropical regions of the Atlantic and 

 Gulf of Mexico there seems to be a very character- 

 istic species assemblage utilizing surf zone areas. 

 Species listed as numerically important in both 

 warm-temperate to tropical Gulf of Mexico and 

 western Atlantic studies (Table 5) were A. mitch- 

 illi, A. lyolepis (= A. nasuta), T. carolinus, M. 

 littoralis, and H. jaguana (= H. pensacolae). In 

 addition, Atlantic silverside, Menidia menidia, 

 and Atlantic menhaden, B. tyrannus, in the At- 

 lantic and M. beryllina and B.patronus in the Gulf 

 were numerically important. Harengula jaguana 

 was most frequently reported as numerically 

 dominant along Gulf of Mexico beaches; only Gil- 

 more (1977) found it to have high abundance in the 

 Atlantic surf zone off the Indian River area of 

 Florida. However, the northern limit of this species 

 is in the area of Cape Kennedy on the Florida 

 Atlantic coast (Rivas 1963). Gilmore (1977) also 

 found A. nasuta to be abundant in the surf zone 

 along the eastern Florida coast. While Menticir- 

 rhus littoralis was not among the five most abun- 

 dant species in some Gulf of Mexico studies (in- 

 cluding ours), its high frequency of occurrence in 

 our study indicates that it is an important surf 

 zone species. Based on Table 5, atherinids, primar- 

 ily of the genus Menidia, were more often among 

 the five most abundant species collected in the 

 Atlantic (seven out of nine studies) than Gulf of 

 Mexico surf zones (two out of six studies). 



Seasonal and Annual Variations 



Temporal changes in both abundance and com- 

 position were primary characteristics of the ich- 

 thyofauna utilizing surf zone habitats of Horn Is- 

 land. Fishes collected in our study were most 



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