freshwater species, pirate perch, was found only 

 in Zone 1. Pinfish and bay anchovy were col- 

 lected in Zone 3 only. Of the nine predominant 

 fishes in samples from the upper river, six were 

 marine euryhaline species and three were fresh- 

 water species. 



Four of the 58 species in samples collected by 

 bottom trawling in the lower river comprised 

 95% of the catch (Table 5). Spot was again 

 the most abundant species and was followed suc- 

 cessively by bay anchovy, pinfish, and Atlantic 

 croaker. All of the latter were also among the 

 dominant species of the upper river. Spot was 

 most numerous in Zone 6, bay anchovy in Zone 4, 

 pinfish in Zone 6, and Atlantic croaker in Zone 5. 

 Pinfish and Atlantic croaker were sparse in 

 Zones 4 and 6, respectively. 



Thirty-seven species were represented in sam- 

 ples from littoral waters of the estuary, and 

 seven of these accounted for 96 9f of the catch 

 by haul seine. These samples consisted princi- 

 pally of young-of-the-year fishes. Young spot 

 predominated in these samples. Atlantic silver- 

 side (Meyiidia menidia) and young striped mul- 



Table 5. --Relative abundance of the principal fishes 

 taken by bottom trawl and haul seine in lower 

 Newport River, 1970. 



let (Mugil cephalus) ranked next in importance 

 but were each less than a third as numerous as 

 spot. Bay anchovy and postlarval Atlantic men- 

 haden ranked next and were followed by post- 

 larval pinfish and rough silverside. Unlike the 

 adults, young spot were most abundant in the 

 upper reaches of the estuary indicating an up- 

 stream movement similar to that of Atlantic 

 menhaden. Both species of atherinids, Atlantic 

 and rough silversides, were most numerous in 

 the lower reaches of the system. The distribu- 

 tion of bay anchovy and pinfish in littoral waters 

 paralleled their distribution in samples from 

 benthic waters. 



Gill nets, fished in open waters throughout the 

 river, took a slightly greater variety of fishes 

 than any other gear, 59 diff'erent species. Be- 

 cause of their selectivity, however, gill nets 

 sampled only the moderate-to-large-sized fishes. 

 Eight species composed about 93 "^r of the total 

 catch by gill nets (Table 6). Atlantic men- 

 haden (chiefly yearling fish) was by far the dom- 

 inant species in the open waters. Yearling men- 

 haden were especially abundant in catches in the 

 estuary but small numbers were taken upstream 

 into Zone 2. Juvenile and adult pinfish ranked 

 second in abundance and occurred only in sam- 

 ples from the estuary. Spot was the third most 

 abundant species and was captured as far up- 

 stream as Zone 2, but in smaller numbers than 

 in the estuary. Longnose gar ranked next in 

 abundance and was limited to samples from the 

 upper river. This species appeared the most 

 abundant of the large freshwater fishes. Blue- 

 fish (Pomatomus saltatrix), mostly yearlings, 

 also were taken in large numbers in the estuary; 

 young-of-the-year bluefish were taken by sur- 

 face trawl in the upper river but in relatively 

 smaller numbers. Gizzard shad were gillnetted 

 throughout the system, but were most abundant 

 in the upper river. Atlantic thread herring 

 {Opisthonema oglinum) and Atlantic croaker 

 were taken only in the estuary, the former spe- 

 cies being most abundant in the upper reaches 

 and the latter species in the lower reaches. 



The seven dominant fishes in the combined 

 collections by various gears were Atlantic men- 

 haden, bay anchovy, spot, Atlantic silverside, 

 striped mullet, pinfish, and Atlantic croaker — 

 all marine euryhaline species. The first five spe- 

 cies accounted for 93% of the total catch and 



12 



