An Annotated List of Larval and Juvenile Fishes 



Captured With Surfaee-Tow^ed Meter Net in the 



South Atlantic Bight During Four RV Dolphin 



Cruises Between May 1967 and February 1968 



MICHAEL p. FAHAY' 



INTRODUCTION 



In December 1965, the Sandy Hook Laboratory 

 began a 2 yr preliminary survey of the Atlantic con- 

 tinental shelf to determine spawning times and 

 locations for marine fishes and to describe dispersal 

 patterns of larvae and juveniles. During the first year 

 we worked from Martha's Vineyard, Mass., to Cape 

 Lookout, N.C. (Clark et al. 1969). Beginning in May 

 1967, we sampled the South Atlantic Bight from New 

 River, N.C, to Palm Beach, Fla., at quarterly inter- 

 vals. A description of our sampling technique, 

 temperature and salinity profiles, zooplankton 

 volumes, and a familial list of young fishes collected 

 in a surface-towed meter net are presented in Clark et 

 al. (1970). The purpose of this report is to list the 

 fishes caught in the meter net by species and to com- 

 ment on some of the occurrences. 



Several faunal lists (mostly of demersal fishes) per- 

 taining to the South Atlantic Bight have recently 

 been published. Struhsaker (1969) presented a list of 

 demersal fishes captured during a 5 yr trawling survey 

 of the continental shelf off southeastern United 

 States. Bullis and Thompson (1965) listed fishes 

 taken with a variety of gears (mostly trawls) during a 

 four-vessel survey of the shelf and slope from Cape 

 Hatteras to Brazil. Anderson (1968) presented records 

 of fishes taken during shrimp trawling operations 

 between Cape Romain, S.C., and Cape Kennedy, Fla. 



Dooley (1972) listed fishes closely associated with 

 sargassum in the Florida Current near Miami. An im- 

 portant difference between his work and that reported 

 here is depth and location of sampling. Dooley intend- 

 ed to sample fishes associated with sargassum while 

 our intent was to sample the surface ichthyofauna at 

 stations along the cruise track of our survey. Dooley 

 thus used a purse seine to collect fishes in the upper 

 5.2 m of the water column around sargassum ac- 

 cumulations, while we used a net which never sam- 

 pled deeper than 1 m and we also sampled the surface 

 close to shore and away from weed accumulations. 

 Furthermore, Dooley selected large rafts of sargassum 



'Middle Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Center, National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, NOAA, Highlands, NJ 07732. 



to surround with his purse seine while we sampled 

 along straight lines originating at predetermined 

 stations, and sampled sargassum only as chance 

 provided small clumps in the path of our net. 

 Therefore, Dooley specifically sampled the sargassum 

 community while we sampled the surface fauna which 

 occasionally included the sargassum community. 

 Although we noticed close associations of some species 

 to sargassum clumps, it was a shortcoming of our 

 sampling procedure that we neglected to record the 

 volume of weed contained in the net on each tow. 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



Collecting stations are shown in Figure 1 and their 

 positions are listed in Table 1. The Appendix Table 

 contains dates, times, and physical data pertaining to 

 each cruise and station. Positions are based on 

 LORAN navigation and are accurate to within 1.8 km 

 ( 1 nautical mile). Surface temperatures were obtained 

 with stem thermometers, accurate to ±0.1°C, 

 mechanical bathythermographs, and a strip-chart 

 recorder which provided a continuous record over the 

 cruise track. Salinities were measured with a Tsurumi 

 Salinity, Temperature, Depth Recorder during the 

 May cruise; thereafter with a Beckman RS5-3 

 Salinometer. Sunrise and sunset times (U.S. Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey 1967, 1968) were corrected for 

 latitude, longitude, and local time. When any part of 

 a tow occurred within 1 h of sunrise or sunset, that tow 

 was considered a crepuscular one and is labelled 

 either "dawn" or "dusk" in the Appendix Table. 



The net we used to sample the surface ichthyofauna 

 consisted of a reinforced steel ring 1 m in diameter to 

 which was attached a 4 m long conical nylon net with 

 rectangular apertures of 3.3 X 6.4 mm (0.13 X 0.25 

 in). The net was connected to the fixed towing line 

 with a three-legged bridle and was towed from an out- 

 board boom which held the net about 2 m away from 

 the hull of the vessel while sampling. The mouth of 

 the net was amidships, well behind the bow wake. Ap- 

 proximately 75*^7 of the mouth was submerged at all 

 times. Tows lasted 30 min and covered about 4.6 km 

 (2.5 nautical miles). When the net contained 

 sargassum weed, we picked through it manually 



