hydrographic characteristics, especially temperature, 

 and the differences are magnified during the winter. 

 Those species which apparently spawn offshore and 

 whose larvae migrate toward inshore nurseries as they 

 grow do so in winter and spring when temperatures in- 

 shore and offshore differ greatly. Examples from our 

 collections include Elops saurus, Mugil spp., 

 Leiostomus xanthurus, Brevoortia sp., Synodus spp., 

 Urophycis regius, Trachinotus carolinus, and 

 Scomberomorus maculatus. Offshore spawning and 

 inshore migration of larvae does not occur during 

 summer and fall, when temperatures inshore more 

 closely approximate those in the Gulf Stream. 



It should be repeated that the data reported on here 

 are the results of only one phase of the sampling done 

 during the Dolphin surveys: the surface-towed meter 

 net collections of larval and juvenile fishes. Not in- 

 cluded are collections made by the Gulf V plankton 

 samplers and subsurface juvenile fish hoops and mid- 

 water trawl. 



ELOPIDAE 



Elops saurus Linnaeus 



ladyfish 



D-67-1 May 



AA-2, 1, 30.8 

 D-67-8 Jul-Aug 



AA-7, 1, 28.5 

 D-67-16 Oct 



EE-2, 1, 29.9 



GG-4, 1, 31.3 



HH-6, 2, 24.3-26.3 

 MM-3, 1, 29.9 

 D-68-1 Jan-Feb 

 FF-1, 1, 34.3 

 GG-3, 1, 35.9 

 HH-2. 1, .30.5 

 HH-3, 1, 36.6 

 LL-1, 1, 26.8 



Our catches of Elops saurus throughout the year do 

 not necessarily indicate an extended spawning period, 

 for it may be that 1) the fish we caught in winter are 

 from the same group as those we caught in fall, 2) very 

 little growth occurs during fall-winter, or 3) the larvae 

 do not metamorphose and migrate into estuaries until 

 spring warming occurs. Gehringer (1959) suggested 

 much the same thing after examining his catches of 

 early-, mid-, and late-metamorphic larvae. None of 

 our specimens is in a metamorphic stage nor is any 

 small enough to suggest point of origin. I believe that 

 most spawning occurs offshore from spring through 

 fall and that premetamorphic larvae (which we 

 sampled) become more abundant over the shelf 

 through those seasons, reaching a peak in the winter, 

 followed by a mass migration of metamorphosing 

 juveniles into the estuaries in the spring. It is consis- 

 tent with this hypothesis that our subsurface samplers 

 made several large catches of premetamorphic larvae 

 (up to 346 individuals per station) during the fall and 

 winter off Daytona Beach, Cape Kennedy, and Vero 

 Beach (unpublished). 



Eldred and Lyons (1966), mentioned a disparity in 

 myomere numbers between most of their Florida 

 specimens (with 74-77 myomeres) and most of 

 Gehringer's (1959) specimens from the offing of 

 Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina (with 78-81 

 myomeres). Myomere numbers in our North Carolina 

 to Georgia specimens range from 75 to 78, and in our 



Florida specimens from 78 to 81. The significance of 

 this is not understood, but interestingly, it is the 

 reverse of the disparity mentioned above. Evidently 

 the meristic characters differ geographically and vary 

 from year to year, probably in response to different 

 temperatures. 



OPHICHTHIDAE 



Unidentified Leptocephali 

 D-67-4 May 

 AA-3, 1, 75.8 SL 

 GG-6, 1, 75.7 SL 

 D-67-8 Jul-Aug 

 DD-2, 2, 67.7-76.0 SL 

 FF-2, 1, 70.8 SL 

 D-67-16 Oct 

 DD-2, 1, 84.8 SL 

 GG-3, 3, 89.0-91.5 SL 

 GG-4, 5, 81.0-97.6 SL 

 HH-6, 16, 51.5-90.3 SL 

 HH-7, 1, 75.6 SL 

 JJ-6, 1, 73.4 SL 

 LL-3, 1, 71.1 SL 

 PP-3, 1, 75.2 SL 

 D-68-1 Jan-Feb 

 CC-4, 1, 50.7 SL 

 DD-3, 1, 63.0 SL 

 EE-1, 2, 57.4-57.8 SL 

 EE-2, 4, 51.8-62.3 SL 

 JJ-6, 1, 69.2 SL 

 NN-1, 2, 63.5-78.0 SL 

 Myrophis punctatus Lutken 

 speckled worm eel 

 D-68-1 Jan-Feb 

 AA-2, 1, 327.0 

 Bascanichthys sp. 

 D-68-1 Jan-Feb 

 JJ-3. 1, 604.0 

 NEMICHTHYTOAE 

 Unidentified Leptocephali 

 D-67-4 May 



NN-2, 1, 77.0 SL 

 D-68-1 Jan-Feb 

 DD-6, 1, 91.2 

 NN-3, 1, 77.0 



The surface -towed meter net apparently does not 

 adequately sample leptocephalid larvae. The small 

 numbers of leptocephali listed here do not reflect the 

 many hundreds taken on the same stations by other 

 gear (Gulf V plankton samplers or subsurface juvenile 

 fish samplers). Only four of the eight families 

 represented in our total leptocephalus collection were 

 taken in the surface-towed net. The family 

 Xenocongridae, which, according to Smith (1969) 

 forms "a major constituent of the leptocephalus fauna 

 in the western North Atlantic," is totally absent from 

 our collections. We cannot account for this. 



Bohlke and Chaplin (1968) reported that worm eels 

 will approach a light hung near the surface. Our 

 nighttime catches of adult ophichthids indicate that 

 these fishes may forage near the surface at night and 

 be present regardless of an artificial light source. 



MURAENIDAE 



Unidentified Leptocephali 



D-67-4 May 

 AA-1, 1, 69.0 SL 

 LL-5, 2, 42.3-64.5 SL 



D-67-8 Jul-Aug 

 AA-6, 1, 63.0 SL 

 DD-3. 1, 63.5 SL 

 EE-4, 1, 77.5 SL 

 FF-2, 1, 77.6 SL 

 JJ-4, 1, 70.0 SL 

 KK-5, 1, 61.5 SL 

 LL-4, 1, 36.8 SL 

 MM-1, 1, 67.0 SL 

 MM-2, 8, 47.5-64.5 SL 

 NN-1, 1, 24.5 SL 



D-67-16 Oct 



CC-5, 1, 70.5 SL 

 EE-2, 2, 72.0-74.5 SL 

 EE-3, 1, 70.0 SL 

 HH-6, 3, 60.7-72.5 SL 

 HH-7, 6, 55.5-72.0 SL 



CONGRIDAE 



Unidentified Leptocephali 

 D-67-8 Jul-Aug 



NN-1, 1, 22.8 SL 

 D-67-16 Oct 



FF-6, 1, 106.0 SL 



GG-4, 1, 53.5 SL 



LL-4, 2, 28.0-59.3 SL 

 D-68-1 Jan-Feb 



EE-2, 1, 55.6 SL 



NN-4, 1, 82.3 SL 



14 



