FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 82, NO. 1 



M 



E 

 o 

 O 



550 - 



500 - 



450 - 



400- 



350- 



HI 



a. 300 



HI 

 < 



> 



< 



250 - 



O 



jjj 200- 



D 



150 - 



100 - 



50 - 



1974 



MIJIJIAIS 

 1977 



FIGURE 1 1 . — Mean densities of white croaker larvae in the vicinity of King Harbor, Redondo Beach, Calif., between January 1974 and February 



1978. 



tion of the coast, white croaker larvae accounted for 

 11.7% of the larval fishes collected in oblique tows 

 versus 43.6% from Laguna Beach to Redondo Beach 

 and 17.9% from Playa del Rey to Point Conception 

 (Fig. 14). 



Our data indicate that highest densities of white 

 croaker larvae occur near the bottom (Fig. 15). In the 

 coastal zone, between the 15 and 36 m isobaths, rela- 

 tive densities indicate little variation through the 

 water column, being 1.5-3.5% with surface waters, 

 55.0-58.0% in the bottom waters, and 40.0-42.5% in 

 middepth waters (Fig. 16). Relative densities in the 

 surface waters at the shallow 8 m stations 

 dramatically increased to 17.5% with a correspond- 

 ing decrease in both bottom and middepth waters. 



White croaker larval densities peaked at stations 

 located at 1 5 and 22m depths (Fig. 15). The densities 



declined sharply at the deeper (36 m) and shallower 

 stations (8 m). The only exception to this trend was in 

 surface water where densities steadily decreased in 

 an offshore direction. 



Only 1 5 of our 20 transects had stations at 8 and 22 

 m isobaths. Data in Figure 15 suggest that an abun- 

 dance estimate based on the 8 and 22 m stations may 

 approximate one based on the 15 and 36 m stations. 

 If so, an estimate based on either of those station 

 pairs should approximate one based on all four. We 

 examined this at the three transects (OB, RB, SO), 

 where data for all four stations were available. We 

 tested the data from each transect for each of the 12 

 mo of the sampling program using the sign test 

 (Dixon and Massey 1957). The estimated number of 

 white croaker larvae per 1 ,000 m 3 based on the 8 and 

 22 m stations was compared with the estimate based 



190 



