PEARCY: niSTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF SMALL FLATFISHES 



lated with depth or sediment type. Small sanddab 

 predominated on the silty-sand station, whereas 

 large sanddab preferred sandy sediments. 

 Young-of-the-year rex sole were concentrated on 

 the outer edge of the continental shelf ( 190- 195 m). 



8. Catches were sometimes larger in the winter 

 than the summer, especially at the deep stations. 

 This trend, which was noted for all four flatfishes 

 and for all species combined, is probably the result 

 of seasonal bathymetric movements. 



9. A pronounced decrease in the catches of most 

 species and total catch per square meter occurred 

 during the 2 yr of this study. Reasons for this 

 decline are unknown. 



10. The biomass of benthic fishes ranged from 

 0.9 to 2.4 g m "- at the seven stations. Biomass was 

 not appreciably lower at the pure sand stations, 

 which had about O.l'^^ organic carbon in the sedi- 

 ment. This is related to the fact that the Pacific 

 sanddab, the predominant species at this station, 

 is a pelagic feeder (see Pearcy and Hancock 1978). 



11. The weight of fishes per square meter 

 caught in the 3-m beam trawl was several times 

 lower than that estimated from larger otter trawls 

 with coarser meshes. Although the beam trawl 

 caught many small flatfishes, large fishes and 

 nektobenthic species effectively avoided this 

 small beam trawl, resulting in low biomass esti- 

 mates. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



This research was sponsored by NOAA Office of 

 Sea Grant, No. 04-5-158-2. I am especially grate- 

 ful to D. L. Stein and G. L. Bertrand for their help 

 at sea; to D. L. Stein for identifying the fishes; to F. 

 L. Ramsey, W. L. Gabriel, and R. G. Petersen for 

 analysis of data; and to J. Dickinson, A. G. Carey, 

 Jr., and J. C. Quast for helpful comments on the 

 manuscript. 



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