524 



Fishery Bulletin 94(3). 1996 



In an effort to capture fish that did not move into 

 the weir during the ebb tide, seine samples were 

 taken at low tide (immediately prior to hauling the 

 weir) within the approximately 100-m 2 triangular 

 area enclosed by the wings. See Rountree and Able 

 (1992) for a more complete description of the weir 

 and seine sampling methods. 



Intensive weir and seine sampling was conducted 

 approximately fortnightly from April to November 

 1988 in Schooner and Foxboro creeks and from April 

 to October 1989 in Schooner, Foxboro, and New 

 creeks (Table 1). During 1988, consecutive day and 

 night tides were sampled within each creek, whereas 

 only night tides were sampled during 1989. Day and 

 night tides were those in which at least the last two 

 hours of flood occurred after sunrise or sunset, re- 

 spectively. During 1988 and 1989 all creeks were 

 sampled within a three-d period during each sam- 

 pling week. 



mouth of Story Island Creek (Fig. 1). The first gill 

 net was stretched across the mouth of Foxboro Creek 

 so as to block fish passage completely. However, at 

 Story Island Creek two nets were stretched across 

 the creek mouth but did not completely block the 

 creek entrance. Gill nets were deployed at night be- 

 tween 1600-2200 h at either high or low tide and 

 were checked 2-6 times until 0900-1100 h the next 

 day. Catches of smooth dogfish were standardized 

 by catch per unit of effort (CPUE) which was deter- 

 mined "as the number offish captured in a net check 

 divided by the time elapsed since the previous check 

 (expressed as number/net hours)." Sampling effort 

 was similar on ebb and flood tides (298 and 252 net 

 h, respectively; Table 1). These data were supple- 

 mented with data from irregular gill-net collections 

 made on four dates during 1988 and on two dates 

 during 1989 within either Foxboro or Schooner creeks 

 (Table 1). 



Gill-net sampling Standardized gill-net sampling 

 at fortnightly intervals was conducted during May 

 and July-November 1990 with six gill nets (23 m 

 long x 1.8 m high; 38-mm 2 mesh; Table 1). One net 

 was set on the sill at the mouth of Foxboro Creek, 

 and three were set in the shallow bay shoals adja- 

 cent to the creek. Two additional nets were set in the 



Other sampling Irregular collections with hook and 

 line were made in the immediate vicinity of Foxboro 

 Creek, although some collections were made in other 

 areas of the bay (Table 1), and standardized otter- 

 trawl tows (4.9-m opening, 19-mm-mesh wings, 6.3- 

 mm-mesh liner) were made during the day at 13 lo- 

 cations throughout the Little Egg Harbor-Great Bay 



Table 1 



Sampling effort and size ranges of smooth dogfish, Mustelus canis, collected in the Little Egg Harbor-Great Bay estuary of 

 southern New Jersey during 1988-90. 



Gear Year Sampling period 



Young-of-the-year 

 total length Imml 

 Sampling 



effort Mean(SE) Min Max 



Other total length (mm) 



Mean(SE) Min Max n 



Weir 1988 Apr-Nov, fortnightly (day and night) 



1989 Apr-Oct. fortnightly (night) 



Seine 1988 Jul-Nov, fortnightly (day and night) 



1989 Apr-Oct, fortnightly (night) 



Gill net 1988 Jun-Sep (irregular) 



1989 Aug-Sep (night) 



1990 May, Jul-Nov, fortnightly ( night ) 



Hook- 1988 Jun-July (day and night) 



and- 1989 Jun-Sep, irregular (day and night) 



line 1990 May-Jun, irregular (day and night) 



Otter 1988 June-Dec, monthly (day) 



trawl 1989 Jan, Mar-Jun, Sep-Oct, monthly 

 Jul-Aug, fortnightly (day) 



1990 Apr-Dec, monthly (day) 



42 sets 421(5) 285 539 68 

 27 sets 388(9) 299 545 37 



32 hauls 

 25 hauls 



138 h' 

 550 h 



2 dates 

 5 dates 

 7 dates 



342 tows 



563 tows 

 560 tows 



422(7) 

 387 (29) 



369 

 320 



453 



■l.si 



12 

 6 



400(11) 318 462 14 

 499(12) 366 604 22 

 520(3) 389 699 448 



473(11) 418 

 380(6) 321 

 397(7) 325 



515 

 517 

 460 



48 

 33 



429(9) 



380 472 1 1 



419(19) 371 

 355(11) 326 



522 

 379 



— (— ) — 



627 (— ) 627 627 1 



— ( — ) — — — 



— ( — ) — — — 



945 (131) 728 1,180 3 



— (—) — — — 

 825 (68) 592 1,025 8 



1,123 (39) 1,070 1,200 3 



— (— ) — — — 

 996 (158) 715 1,260 3 



1,156 (11) 1,126 1.220 7 



— ( — ) — 



— ( — ) — 



1 Total number of hours fished summed over all nets. 



