well over seine estimates. Other authors also 

 found L. romboides to be common in their drop net 

 samples (Table 1). 



The current drop net system is the only design to 

 use a rigid frame seine and a solid aluminum drop 

 frame in conjunction with 3.2-mm mesh netting. 

 This probably accounts for the goby and flatfish 

 captures and also accurately delineates the sam- 

 ple area. It is possible that the sample area may 

 change due to wind or current effects on falling 

 pursing nets (Table 1; Jones et al. 1963; Kjelson et 

 al. 1975). Disadvantages with the aluminum drop 

 frame are its bulk, limited maneuverability, and 

 operations limited to a level bottom. A collapsible 

 frame or one which can be disassembled may 

 eliminate the maneuverability problem. Moseley 

 and Copeland (1969) indicated that noise and 

 shadows may have affected their samples. We 

 tried to eliminate the shadow effect and noise with 

 as little water surface contact as possible using a 

 tripod which suspended the net over the water 

 with an open center. It may be possible to have 

 vibrations in the tripod apparatus transmitted 

 through the submerged portion of the tripod legs; 

 however, this possibility and its effect is not 

 known. Portable float and portable helicopter drop 

 nets (Table 1) could drop in deeper water (depths of 

 2.5-4.6 m) than our system (1.2 m). Most other 

 drop net designs require two people to operate. The 

 helicopter drop net requires six while our design 

 requires three. A smaller version of this tripod 

 design would require fewer operators. It takes 60 

 min to set up, drop, retrieve the sample, and dis- 

 mantle our drop net without the arbitrary 1 h 

 waiting period. Kjelson and Johnson (1973) and 

 Kjelson et al. (1975) were the only authors to pub- 

 lish operational times and these were 25 min and 

 15 to 20 min respectively. 



The 10-m^ sample area in the current design is a 

 compromise between maneuverability and sample 

 size. The small sample precludes adequate capture 

 of mobile fishes >150 mm SL. Fishes with a 

 clumped distribution or that form schools will also 

 occur in these drop net samples less frequently 

 than if other gear were used (e.g., seines and 

 trawls). However, to obtain an accurate fish den- 

 sity and biomass estimate in nursery areas or of 

 fish populations in which the adult size is small 

 (e.g., gobioids) the current design has produced 

 adequate samples. 



Literature Cited 



Adams, S. M. 



1976. The ecology of eelgrass, Zostera marina (L.) fish 

 communities. I. Structural analysis. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. 

 Ecol. 22:269-291. 

 HELLIER, T. R., Jr. 



1958. The drop-net quadrat, a new population sampling 

 device. Publ. Inst. Mar. Sci. Univ. Tex. 5:165-168. 



1962. Fish production and biomass studies in relation to 

 photosynthesis in the Laguna Madre of Texas. Publ. 

 Inst. Mar. Sci. Univ. Tex. 8:1-22. 



HOESE, H. D. 



1966. Habitat segregation in aquaria between two sym- 



patric species of Gobiosoma. Publ. Inst. Mar. Sci. Univ. 



Tex. 11:7-11. 

 HOESE, H. D., AND R. S. JONES. 



1963. Seasonality of larger animals in a Texas turtle grass 

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JONES, R. S. 



1965. Fish stocks from a helicopter-borne purse net sampl- 

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Jones, r. S., W. B. Ogletree, J. H. Thompson, and W. Flen- 



NIKEN. 



1963. Helicopter borne purse net for population sampling 

 of shallow marine bays. Publ. Inst. Mar. Sci. Univ. Tex. 

 9:1-6. 

 Kjelson, M. A., and G. N. Johnson. 



1973. Description and evaluation of a portable drop-net for 

 sampling nekton populations. Southeast Assoc. Game 

 Fish. Comm., Proc. 27th Annu. Conf., p. 653-662. 



Kjelson, m. a., W. R. Turner, and G. N. Johnson. 



1975. Description of a stationary drop-net for estimating 

 nekton abundance in shallow waters. Trans. Am. Fish. 

 Soc. 104:46-49. 

 KUSHLAN, J. A. 



1974. Quantitative sampling of fish populations in shal- 

 low, freshwater environments. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 

 103:348-352. 



Moseley, F. N., and B. T. Copeland. 



1969. A portable drop-net for representative sampling of 

 nekton. Contrib. Mar. Sci. Univ. Tex. 14:37-45. 



Springer, V. G., and a. J. McErlean. 



1961. Spawning seasons and growth of the code goby, 

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R. Grant Gilmore 



John K. Holt 



Robert S. Jones 



George R. Kulczycki 



Louis G. MacDowell III 



Wayne C. Magley 



Harbor Branch Foundation, Inc. 

 RFD l.Box 196 

 Fort Pierce, FL 33450 



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