water. The catch of those fishes which have little or no connection 

 with estuaries amounted to 24.4 million pounds, while the catch of 

 estuarine species amounted to 1,332 billion pounds, including oysters 

 and crustaceans. In short, estuarine species make up about 97.5 per- 

 cent of the total commercial fisheries catch in the Gulf states; 

 saltwater species, about 2.0 percent; and freshwater species, about 

 0.5 percent. 



The general life histories of most of the motile estuarine animals 

 along the Gulf coast follow a similar pattern. The eggs are spawned 

 at sea and the larvae somehow make their way into the low-salinity 

 waters of the estuaries. The young animals develop in the estuaries 

 and then return to or towards the sea. The author relates the 

 salinity factor, populations, and fertility to distributions of 

 estuarine organisms. (H.D.) 



Keywords: estuaries, fisheries, estuarine animals, life histories, 

 U.S. Gulf coast 



IV-C-4 



Walford, L. 1968. Values of the South Atlantic and Gulf coast marshes 



and estuaries to sport fishery resources. Pages 79-82 in^ J.D. Newsom, ed.. 

 Proceedings of the marsh and estuary management symposium. Louisiana 

 State University, Baton Rouge. 



Only a few species of fish can be categorized exclusively as sport 

 fish and even those are not totally exempt from being caught by 

 commercial fishermen. Consequently, there are no properties in the 

 estuarine zone that have values for sport fishes different from those 

 affecting other species. The importance of sport fishing to conservation 

 agencies and others lies in the fact that during the past twenty 

 years sport fishing has grown into a yery popular form of recreation 

 and an important industry in terms of economics. Two values of estuaries 

 to fishery resources are presented: (1) estuaries provide an enormous 

 area of shallow water habitat; (2) there are many estuaries along 

 the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. (B.W.) 



Keywords: coastal marshes, estuaries, sport fisheries, U.S. South Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts 



IV-C-5 



Copeland, B.J., and T.J. Bechtel . 1974. Some environmental limits 



of six Gulf coast estuarine organisms. University of Texas 



Contributions in Marine Science 18:169-204. 



Literature and data analysis of six sports and commercially important 

 species occupying Gulf coast estuaries were made utilizing a computerized 



156 



