Because life stages of many species use both estua- 

 rine and marine habitats, information on distribution, 

 abundance, temporal utilization, and life history char- 

 acteristics are needed to understand the coupling of 

 estuarine, nearshore, and offshore habitats. To date, 

 a national data base of this type does not exist. Conse- 

 quently, the ELMR program was developed to inte- 

 grate fragments of information on marine and estua- 

 rine species and their associated habitats into a useful, 

 comprehensive, and consistent format. Results from 

 this program will complement NOAA efforts to develop 

 a national estuarine assessment capability (NOAA 

 1985), identify information gaps, and assess the con- 

 tent and quality of existing estuarine fisheries data. 



Data Collection and Organization 



Figure 2 summarizes the major steps taken to collect 

 and organize information on the distribution and abun- 

 dance of fishes and invertebrates in Mid-Atlantic estu- 

 aries. The initial steps were selection of the estuaries 

 and species to be studied. 



Selection of Estuaries. Mid-Atlantic estuaries were 

 selected from the National Estuarine Inventory (NEI) 

 Data Atlas - Volume I (NOAA 1985), with the addition 

 of Waquoit Bay, New Jersey Inland Bays, and Dela- 

 ware Inland Bays. The 22 estuaries selected are listed 

 in Table 1 , and their locations shown in Figure 3. 



Data on spatial and temporal distributions of species 

 were developed and organized by the tidal fresh (0.0 to 

 0.5 parts per thousand (ppt)), mixing (0.5 to 25.0 ppt), 

 and seawater (>25.0 ppt) zones delineated for each 

 estuary in the NEI. Each of the three salinity zones are 

 represented in 7 of the Mid-Atlantic estuaries, but 15 

 estuaries are missing at least one zone (Table 1 ). For 

 example, Delaware Bay contains all three zones, 

 whereas Chincoteague Bay is considered as entirely 

 seawater. A representative map and data table (Dela- 

 ware Bay) from the NEI Data Atlas is shown in Appen- 

 dix 1, p. 193. 



Figure 2. Major steps taken to complete the Mid-Atlantic ELMR study. 



Compile 



Estuary 



Information 



Prepare 



Species/Estuary 



Data Sheets 



61 

 Species 



Peer Review: 

 Data Verification 



Develop 

 Life History 

 Summaries 



