Figure 7. Mean number of species as larvae (averaged across estuaries), by month and salinity zone. 



15 -1 



Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 



Month 



Legend: 



Tidal fresh zone Mixing Zone 



Seawater Zone 



for mean monthly catches by 1 minute trawls. This 

 quantitative information supplements the relative 

 abundance rankings of the ELM R species compiled 

 in this report. 



Only a few species are used to show comparisons 

 between estuarine systems along the Central Gulf of 

 Mexico coast. ELMR data are comparable between 

 estuarine systems only when state agency 

 quantitative databases are available to enhance the 

 ELMR data. Without consistent quantitative data, 

 comparisons between salinity zones and species 

 are only feasible within an estuarine system. 



Brown shrimp (Penaeus aztecus) and spot 

 (Leiostomus xanthurus) were selected to represent 

 a portion of the data from LDWF and GCRL which 

 were made available to ELMR. The mean monthly 

 commercial catch of brown shrimp usually peaked 

 from Mayto July (Figure9a). Comparison of estuarine 

 systems shows that CSA VII (Calcasieu Lake) has 

 tfie highest peak abundance of brown shrimp, while 

 the other systems all peak about the same time, but 

 at lower levels. Spot usually peaked in March (Figure 

 9b). The highest relative atDundance of spot was in 

 Mississippi Sound. 



Figure 8. Comparison of ELMR estuaries with LDWF Coastal Study Areas (l-VII) and GCRL Mississippi 

 Sound (MS) stations. 



10 



