rostrata. On the other hand, 12 of the marine 

 forms were considered as euryhaline and pen- 

 etrated into tidal fresh waters of the upper river. 

 Seven other marine species were taken in waters 

 within the low salinity range (0.6-10/r^ ) ; four 

 were collected from brackish waters of the up- 

 per river and three from the low salinity waters 

 (8.3'rV) encountered in Zone 4 of the lower river 

 during the April sampling period. 



Eighty-six different species were collected in 

 moderate to high salinity waters (i.e., over 10y,r) 

 of the estuary. Twenty-six of these species gave 

 evidence of preferring high salinity since they 

 were collected only from waters greater than 

 25'/, c. Six of these species, however, have been 

 recorded from fresh waters by other workers 

 (Gunter, 1956; Gunter and Hall, 1963) and are 

 therefore considered euryhaline: these species 

 are ladyfish, Elops sauries; rough silverside, 

 Memhras martinica; spotfin mojarra, Eucinos- 

 tomiis argenteus; sheepshead, Archosargus 

 probatocephalus; sharptail goby, Gobionellus 

 hastatns; and northern puffer, Sphoeroides 

 maculates. 



RELATIVE ABUNDANCE 



A total of nearly 129,000 fishes were collected 

 from Newport River in 1970. Moveable gear 

 (trawls and haul seine) accounted for 98% of 

 the total catch, and stationary gear (anchored 

 gill nets) the remainder. Gill nets were fished 

 for 1,281 shackle-hours over the 12-month pe- 

 riod, whereas the actual fishing time for all other 

 gears was estimated at 28.5 hr. The surface trawl 

 netted 66% of the total catch and was the most 

 successful gear employed in terms of catch per 

 unit of effort, 884 fish i^er haul. The haul seine 

 took 19 ''f of the total catch and 335 fish per haul, 

 the large bottom trawl 13 '~r of the total catch and 

 284 fish per haul, and the small bottom trawl 

 less than 1% of the total catch and 23 fish per 

 haul. Gill nets were the least effective of the 

 various gears, yielding only 1.4 fish per shackle- 

 hour. 



A general picture of the utilization of each 

 zone and of the different habitats within the 

 system can be derived from the relative abun- 

 dance of species in the catches by various gears. 

 Species representing at least 1% of the total 



Table 4. --Relative abundance of the principal fishes 

 taken by surface trawl and bottom trawl in upper 

 Newport River, 1970. 



catch for the year by any gear were considered 

 dominant forms. 



Although surface trawls captured 29 species 

 in the upper river, two species made up nearly 

 98% of the catch (Table 4) . Atlantic menhaden 

 (Brevoortia tyvanmis) , predominantly young of 

 the year, was the most abundant species and was 

 followed by bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilU). 

 Both of these species, marine euryhaline fishes, 

 moved upstream into Zone 1, but their numbers 

 decreased in a direct relation to distance up- 

 stream. Golden shiner ranked next in abun- 

 dance, but made up less than 1% of the total 

 catch. 



Twenty-six species were taken in the upper 

 river by bottom trawl, but the seven dominant 

 species constituted 94% of the catch. Spot 

 (Leiostomus xanthimis) was the predominant 

 species in the samples, and was followed in order 

 of decreasing abundance by Atlantic croaker 

 (Micropogon undulahis) , hogchoker (Trmectes 

 viaculatus) , white catfish, pinfish, bay anchovy, 

 and pirate perch (Aphredodertts sayanus) . At- 

 lantic croaker and hogchoker occurred as far 

 upstream as Zone 1, but were more numerous 

 downstream. Spot was taken as far upstream 

 as Zone 2, but was more abundant in Zone 3. 

 White catfish was distributed I'ather evenly 

 throughout the upper river, while the other 



11 



