500 



Fishery Bulletin 92(3), 1994 



Marsh River 1990 

 N = 149 



Mar; 

 N = 



h River 1991 

 60 









10 11 12 13 14 15 18 



Fork Length, cm 



12 13 14 15 16 



Fork Length, cm 



Sagadahoc Bay 1990 

 N = 29 



Merepoint Bay 1991 

 N = 70 



8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 



Fork Length, cm 



10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 



Fork Length, cm 



Figure 2 



Length-frequency histograms for juvenile bluefish, Pomatomas saltatrix, collected in Maine: (A) Marsh River 

 1 Aug.-26 Sept. 1990; (B) Marsh River 17 July-17 Sept. 1991; (C) Sagadahoc Bay 10-22 Aug. 1990; and (D) 

 Merepoint Bay 26 Sept. 1991. 



Smale and Kok (1983) collected juveniles at 12-35 

 ppt, Clark ( 1973) occasionally found bluefish in very 

 brackish water, and Baird (1873) captured juveniles 

 from the freshwater portion of tidal rivers. 



Stomach contents 



Stomach contents of juvenile bluefish (81-200 mm 

 FL) collected from the Marsh River in 1990 and 1991 

 are presented in Table 2. During 1990, fish were 

 present in 81.4% of stomachs containing food (F), 

 crustaceans in 39.5% (F), and plant material in 4.7% 

 (F). During 1991, crustaceans were slightly more 

 prevalent than fish. Crustaceans were present in 69.0% 

 of stomachs containing food (F), fish in 62.1% (F), and 

 plant material in 5.2% (F). The frequency of occurrence 

 of polychaetes was 3.4% (F) and of insects, 1.7% (Fi. 



During 1990 and 1991, crustaceans were the pre- 

 dominant prey items in terms of numbers of indi- 

 viduals observed (N) expressed as a percent of the 

 total number of prey items recorded. Crustaceans 

 composed 58.0% ( 1990 ) and 83.4% ( 1991 ) of the total 

 prey items, fish composed 39.9% (1990) and 11.3% 

 (1991), and plant material 2.0% (1990) and 4.5% 

 ( 1991 ). During 1991, 0.5% and 0.3% of the total num- 

 ber of prey items were polychaetes and insects. 



During 1990 and 1991, fish were the predominant 

 prey in terms of wet or dry weight expressed as a 

 percentage of the total wet weight ( W) or dry weight 

 (Wl) of all prey species recorded. Fish composed 

 77.4% of total wet weight (W) and 79.9% of total dry- 

 weight (Wl) during 1990 and 61.9% (W) and 67.5%. 

 (Wl) during 1991. Crustaceans composed 22.5% ( W) 

 and 20.0% (Wl) during 1990 and 37.3% (W) and 



