594 



Fishery Bulletin 92(3). 1994 



data pooled over the five sampling sites for each of 

 the three gear types showed a general pattern of re- 

 duced age-0 summer flounder abundance in Virginia 

 estuaries between 1986 and 1988; there was a slight 

 increase in 1989, based on trawl data (Table 3). The 

 CPUE of the seine and the unlined trawl decreased 

 an order of magnitude per year from 1986 to 1988. 



Twice as many summer flounder ( 101 vs. 54) were 

 captured in seven seine hauls in April and May 1986 

 as in 527 seine hauls over the next two years 

 (Table 3). For October-June data, CPUE in seine 

 hauls was significantly greater in 1987 than in 1988 

 (Table 4) as no P. dentatus were captured in 1988. 

 Seining, though successful in 1986, did not yield 

 many age-0 flounder in 1987-1988 (Tables 2 and 3), 

 and thus was discontinued. 



The unlined trawl data revealed no significant dif- 

 ferences in CPUE between years (Table 4). We did 

 not include 1986 unlined trawl data in analyses, but 

 the high CPUE values for this gear type in May and 

 June provided additional evidence that abundance 

 was greater in 1986 compared with 1987-1989. 



The lined trawl data for October-June revealed 

 significant differences in CPUE among years (Table 



