Anchovy larvae were taken to the north of 

 Point Conception, California, in all years; 

 numbers ranged from insignificant ( 1953, 1955) 

 to consequential (1958-64, especially 1959 and 

 1964), To evaluate better the importance of 

 anchovy larvae in these waters, data onanchovy 

 larvae have been summarized by 120-mile 

 units (table 6). Each geographic unit contains 

 one cardinal and two ordinal station lines, as 

 40, 43, 47. The tabulation by year and geo- 

 graphic unit summarizes three kinds of infor- 

 mation: 1) nunnber of stations occupied during 

 the year, 2) number of hauls containing an- 

 chovy larvae, and 3) total number of larvae 

 obtained (standardized haul totals). 



Few anchovy larvae were taken off northern 

 California either on lines 40-47 or lines 50-57. 

 Less than 5 percent of the hauls from these 

 two geographic units contained anchovy larvae, 

 and the average number of larvae per positive 

 haul was slightly less than 10; the average 

 number per occupancy was less than 0.5. 



The central California area as a whole was 

 more important for anchovy eggs and larvae 

 than was northern California. The portion of 

 the central California area lying between 

 Point Sur and Point San Luis (station lines 

 70-77) was consistently more important than 

 the one between San Francisco and Monterey 

 (station lines 60-67). Lines 60-67, San Fran- 

 cisco to Monterey, were occupied almost as 



frequently (934 collections in 14 years) as the 

 section between Point Sur and Point San Luis 

 (1,007 collections), but the positive hauls were 

 fewer (167 compared to 335), and the average 

 number of larvae per haul was markedly 

 lower. In both areas the abundance increased 

 sharply during 1958-64. In the San Francisco- 

 Monterey area (lines 60-67, the average num- 

 ber of anchovy larvae per occupancy was only 

 0.8 during 1951-57, but was 10.6 during the 

 following 7 years. The average number of 

 larvae per positive haul increased from 8.1 

 to 41.4. The area between Point Sur and Point 

 San Luis had almost 10 times as many larvae 

 in both time periods: 7.1 per occupancy during 

 1951-57 and 100.5 per occupancy during the 

 following 7 years. The average number of 

 anchovy larvae per positive haul increased 

 from 63.6 to 187.0. Obviously, this latter area 

 is the most important one for anchovy larvae 

 off central or northern California. 



The distribution and abundance of anchovy 

 larvae to the north of Point Conception have 

 been presented in some detail to bring out 

 the increasing importance of the region im- 

 mediately to the north and the comparative 

 scarcity of anchovy larvae off northern Cali- 

 fornia. Markedly more anchovy larvae were 

 obtained off southern California, however, 

 than off central or northern California in all 

 years (table 4 and fig. 5). 



Table 6. --Anchovy larvae --occurrence and abundance off northern and centxal California, grouped by 120-mile latitudinal areas, 



1951-64 



[Station lines given below each latitudinal area; sta. occup. -number of stations occupied; occ. -number of occurrences ] 



1/ Norpac cruise included. 



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