in offshore waters and the larvae approach the beach 

 as they grow (Peter L. Berrien, National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, Sandy Hook Laboratory, pers. com- 

 mun.). Spawning apparently occurs at least as far 

 south as Cape Kennedy judging from the occurrences 

 of small larvae. The sizes of young we caught in the 

 surface net are about the same as those caught in the 

 Gulf V. 



Although we caught many Atlantic croaker larvae 

 in the Gulf V plankton nets, which sampled to a depth 

 of 33 m, we caught none in the surface net. Perhaps 

 these larvae are less strongly surface oriented than 

 spot larvae. 



M. C. Caldwell's data (1962, Table 7) indicates a 

 spawning period lasting from January into May for 

 Mullus auratus and our catches substantiate this for 

 two year classes. A difference exists, however, 

 between her data and ours in the abundance of 

 Pseudupeneus maculatus. Whereas her data suggest 

 that P. maculatus is a rather common constituent of 

 the pelagic fauna, ours indicate the species to be rare, 

 at least compared to M. auratus. Struhsaker (1969) 

 caught M. auratus at more than 50% of the stations in 

 the species' primary habitat; P. maculatus at between 



25 



