Distribution and Abundance of Fishes and Invertebrates in Gulf of Mexico Estuaries 



Volume II: Species Life History Summaries 



Introduction 



This is the second of two volumes that present informa- 

 tion on the spatial and temporal distributions, relative 

 abundance, and life history characteristics of 44 fish 

 and invertebrate species in 31 Gulf of Mexico estuar- 

 ies. This volume contains life history summaries for 

 each species. Each summary identifies the life history 

 characteristics that describe a species' occurrence in 

 these estuaries. These summaries were developed to 

 complement data presented in Distribution and Abun- 

 dance of Fishes and Invertebrates in Gulf of Mexico 

 Estuaries, Volume I: Data Summaries (Nelson et 

 al.1992), hereafter referred to as Volume I. 



The summaries presented here are not a complete 

 treatise on all aspects of each species' biology, but they 

 provide a concise account of the most important physi- 

 cal and biological factors known to affect a species' 

 occurrence within estuaries. As a supplement to the 

 life history summaries, their content was augmented 

 with additional physical and biological criteria and 

 condensed into three life history tables. These tables 

 present life history characteristics for each species 

 along with behavioral traits and preferred habitats. 



This report is a product of the National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Estuarine Liv- 

 ing Marine Resources (ELMR) Program (see inside 

 front cover), a cooperative study of the National Ocean 



Service (NOS), the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 (NMFS), and other research institutions. The objective 

 of the ELMR program is to develop a consistent data 

 base on the distribution, abundance, and life history 

 characteristics of important fishes and invertebrates in 

 the Nation's estuaries. This data base contains the 

 relative abundance and monthly occurrence of each 

 species' life stage by estuary for three to five salinity 

 zones identified in NOAA's National Estuarine Inven- 

 tory (NEI) Program (NOAA 1985b). The nationwide 

 data base is divided into five study regions (Figure 1), 

 and contains information for 153 fish and invertebrate 

 species found in 122 U.S. estuaries. 



Rationale 



Estuaries are among the Earth's most productive natu- 

 ral systems and are important nursery areas that 

 provide food, refuge from predation, and valuable 

 habitat for many species (Gunter 1 967, Joseph 1 973, 

 Weinstein 1979, Mann 1982). Estuarine-dependent 

 organisms that support important commercial and rec- 

 reational fisheries include sciaenids.clupeids, shrimps, 

 and crabs. In spite of the well-documented importance 

 of estuaries to fishes and invertebrates, few consistent 

 and comprehensive data bases exist which allow ex- 

 aminations of the relationships between estuarine spe- 

 cies found in or among groups of estuaries. Further- 

 more, much of the distribution and abundance informa- 

 tion for estuarine-dependent species (i.e., species that 



NOAA NMFS, 

 Hammond, OR 



West Coast 



32 estuaries, 

 47 species 



North Atlantic 



17 estuaries, 

 58 species 



Maine DMR, 

 Boothbay Harbor, ME 

 UNH, Durham, NH 

 Mid-Atlantic 

 22 estuaries, 

 61 species 

 NOAA SEA Division, 

 Silver Spring, MD 



VIMS, Gloucester Point, VA 



NOAA NMFS, Beaufort, NC 



Southeast 



20 estuaries, 

 40 species 



Gulf of Mexico 



31 estuaries, 

 44 species 



Figure 1. ELMR study regions and regional research institutions. 



