Norcross and Wyanski: Recruitment pattern and abundance of Paralichthys dentatus 



597 



To develop an index to monitor interannual varia- 

 tion in year-class strength of summer flounder, we 

 suggest sampling in Virginia estuaries during April, 

 May, and June with a small mesh (e.g. 3.2 mm) lined 

 beam trawl. Beam trawls (Kuipers, 1975; Kuipers et 

 al., 1992) have been found to be more effective at 

 capturing flatfishes than have otter trawls (Gund- 

 erson and Ellis, 1986 ) which were used in this study. 

 We recommend using a beam trawl with tickler 

 chains to increase catch, particularly on sand or fine- 

 grained sediment. Diver observations and catch com- 

 parisons of flatfishes by beam and otter trawls in 

 Alaskan waters (Norcross, unpubl. data) support this 

 recommendation. 



Though summer flounder can be captured through 

 October (Fig. 2), the fish are larger but fewer from 

 July to October. This pattern of increasing densities 

 during the period of settlement, followed by a con- 

 tinuous decrease has also been observed in plaice 

 (Pleuronectes platessa) in the North Sea (Veer et al., 

 1990). Thus we recommend sampling during the pe- 

 riod of increasing densities, because later in the sea- 

 son low numbers of captured individuals reduce the 

 sensitivity of the catch data to reflect year-class 

 strength. 



Data presented here support the hypothesis of 

 Poole (1966) that Virginia waters are a nursery 

 ground for summer flounder. Variation in CPUE dur- 

 ing the four years of our study makes it difficult to 

 conclude that this area is a "primary" nursery dur- 

 ing all years. 



In addition to Virginia, summer flounder use ar- 

 eas in New Jersey (Szedlmayer et al., 1992), Dela- 

 ware (Malloy and Targett, 1991) and North Carolina 

 (Burke et al.. 1991) as nursery grounds. The same 

 sample gear and strategy need to be used through- 

 out the range of summer flounder (New Jersey to 

 North Carolina) to compare the relative importance 

 of specific locations as nursery areas. A multi-year 

 study combined with sampling over a finer spatial 

 scale would allow interannual variation in primary 

 nursery locations to be determined. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank S. Smith, D. Seaver, D. Estes, D. Hata, S. 

 Bradberry, D. Bodolus, L. Marshall, C. Tabit, the 

 crews of the RV Captain John Smith and NOAA Ship 

 Ferrel for their field assistance, and M. Castagna for 

 logistical support. Funding for this project was 

 awarded by the National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 Northeast Fisheries Science Center (Contract No. 

 NA85-EAH-00026), by the National Sea Grant Col- 

 lege Program (Sub-contract No. 5-29532), and by the 



Council on the Environment (State of Virginia). Ad- 

 ditional support for data analysis was supplied by 

 the Institute of Marine Science, School of Fisheries 

 and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks. 



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