In summary, the use of Mission Beach by inter- 

 tidal crabbers is greatest 1 to 2 h before the low 

 tide. This corresponds to the period when crabs are 

 most readily observable. From the data collected 

 at Mission Beach and aerial survey counts of other 

 Puget Sound beaches, I estimated that about 

 20,000 crabbers utilized intertidal beaches from 

 April through August 1974. The intertidal 

 Dungeness crab sport fishery is, however, fairly 

 small compared with other marine sport fisheries 

 in Puget Sound. 



Acknowledgments 



I wish to thank G. Pauley, J. Congleton, C. 

 Woeike, K. Chew, and T. Walker for discussion 

 and critical readings of various stages of the man- 

 uscript. Reviewers for the Fishery Bulletin helped 

 improve the readability. R. Whitney, as Leader of 

 the Washington Cooperative Fishery Research 

 Unit at the University of Washington, provided 

 encouragement, support, and facilities from the 

 outset of the study. Appreciation is extended to A. 

 Scholz and other members of the Sport Shellfish 

 Section of the Washington State Department of 

 Fisheries, without whose cooperation this study 

 would not have been possible. The study was par- 

 tially supported by funds from the Washington 

 Department of Fisheries. 



Literature Cited 



BROWN, B. E. 



1969. An analysis ofthe Oklahoma State lakecreel survey 

 to improve creel survey design. Ph.D. Thesis, Oklahoma 

 State Univ., 164 p. 



Butler, R. L., and D. P. Borgeson. 



1965. California "catchable" trout fisheries, Calif Dep. 

 Fish Game, Fish Bull. 127. 47 p. 



Hollander. M., and D. a. Wolfe. 



1973. Nonparametric statistical methods. John Wiley 

 and Sons. N.Y.. 503 p. 



MILLER, D. J., AND D. GOT.SHALL. 



1965, Ocean sportfish catch and effort from Oregon to Point 

 Arguello, California, July 1, 1957 to June 30, 1961, 

 Calif Dep, Fish Game, Fish Bull. 130. 135 p 



Poole, R. w 



1974, An introduction to quantitative ecology. 

 McGraw-Hill. Inc., N,Y,. 5.32 p, 



JOHN G, Williams 



Washington Cooperative Fishery Research Unit 

 College of Fisheries, University of Washington 

 Seattle. WA 98195 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE BIOLOGY OF 



THE PUFFERS SPHOEROIDES TESTUDINEUS 



AND SPHOEROIDES SPENCl.ERI FROM 



BISCAYNE bay, FLORIDA 



The general biology of the checkered puffer, 

 Sphoeroides testiidineus, and bandtail puffer, S. 

 spengleri, is not as well known as that of the 

 northern puffer, S. maculatus. For example, 

 Chesapeake Bay populations ofthe northern puff- 

 er have been examined for length-weight rela- 

 tionships by Isaacson (1963) and Laroche and 

 Davis (1973), for age, growth, and reproductive 

 biology by Laroche and Davis (1973), and for 

 fecundity by Merriner and Laroche (1977). None of 

 this information is available on the checkered or 

 bandtail puffer. 



Checkered and bandtail puffers have greater 

 geographic ranges and are more southern in dis- 

 tribution than the northern puffer. The checkered 

 puffer is abundant from the Atlantic coast of 

 southern Florida, throughout the Caribbean Is- 

 lands, Campeche Bay, and along the coasts of 

 Central and South America to Santos, Brazil 

 (Shipp 1974). The bandtail puffer is common in the 

 Caribbean Sea and along the coasts of peninsular 

 Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda (Shipp 1974). 

 I report here on growth, reproduction, and the 

 pharyngeal dentition of these two species 

 gathered during a study of their feeding biology 

 (Targett 1978). 



The sampling habitat was a shallow seagrass 

 bed along the southwestern shore of Virginia Key 

 in northern Biscayne Bay, Fla. Turtle grass, 

 Thalassia testudmum , was the dominant seagrass 

 with small amounts of shoal grass, Halodule 

 wnghtii, and manatee grass, Syringodium 

 filiforme, also present. Monthly collections from 

 September 1973 to December 1974 yielded 414 

 checkered puffers (15-215 mm SL; 569^ females) 

 and 548 bandtail puffers (16-133 mm SL; 49^;^ 

 females). Seawater temperatures ranged from 

 16.5° to 32.0°C and salinities from 30.5 to 38.5%o. 



Standard length-weight relationships (Figures 

 1,2) were calculated using functional regressions 

 (Ricker 1973). Checkered puffers grow to a larger 

 size and are heavier than bandtail puffers at a 

 given length. Comparisons of these results with 

 those for northern puffers from Chesapeake Bay 

 (Isaacson 1963; Laroche and Davis 1973) was 

 made possible by the conversion of total length to 

 standard length using the factor: caudal fin length 

 = 20. 2"^^, SL (Shipp 1974). Northern puffers grow 



292 



FISHERY Bl'LLETIN VOL 



