Epinephelus nigritus, 

 Warsaw grouper 



Two young-of-the-year Warsaw grouper were 

 collected in Newport River estuary; a 57-mm 

 specimen was taken from Zone 6 in July (water 

 temperature 29.7°C, salinity 28.8%f) and a 

 19-mm specimen was taken from Zone 4 in 

 August (water temperature 29.5°C, salinity 

 24.2%f). Adults are taken regularly in the off- 

 shore fishery, and the species apparently uses 

 the estuary as a nursery area. 



Lutjanus griseus, 

 gray snapper 



One young-of-the-year gray snapper (88 mm) 

 was collected from Zone 4 in September. The 

 water temperature was 28.6°C and the salinity 

 24.4^r at the time of collection. Smith (1907) 

 first recorded the species at Beaufort, and Gudg- 

 er (1913) captured a small specimen at Cape 

 Lookout. Tagatz and Dudley (1961) collected 

 two specimens, 21 and 22 mm, along Atlantic 

 Beach in September. Our inshore record indi- 

 cates that this species uses estuaries in North 

 Carolina as nursery area. 



Lobotes surinamensis, 

 tripletail 



This species was previously reported from 

 Beaufort Harbor (Smith, 1907) and from 

 Beaufort Inlet (Fowler, 1945), but our studies 

 indicated that the tripletail utilized the entire 

 estuary of Newport River. Specimens ranging 

 up to 345 mm were collected from Zone 4 in Sep- 

 tember (temperature 28.6°C, salinity 24.4^r) 

 and October (temperature 25.7°C, salinity 

 24.4%<,) . 



Eucinosfomus argenfeus, 

 spotfin mojarra 



Forty-one spotfin mo j arras (22-75 mm) were 

 collected from Zone 6 in October when the water 

 temperature was 24.1°C. Although this species 

 invades fresh waters in Florida (Carr and Coin, 

 1959), in our collections they were confined to 



higher salinities (35.3%r,) in the lower reaches 

 of the estuary. 



ANNUAL VARIATION 



Bottom-trawl data (Donald E. Hoss and 

 Curtis W. Lewis, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, Beaufort, N.C., unpublished data) col- 

 lected at monthly intervals in Zones 2-6 for the 

 2 years preceeding our study differed markedly 

 in relative abundances of species. Much the 

 same species, however, dominated the catches 

 all 3 years (Table 12). Only nine species con- 

 tributed 1% or more to the annual catches in 

 the upper river. The seven species that con- 

 tributed 1% or more to the total catch in 1970 

 comprised 96.7% of the catch in the upper river 

 that year, 89.7 ':;^ of the catch in 1969, and 92.2% 

 of the catch in 1968. Only five species contrib- 

 uted 1% or more to the annual catches in the 

 lower river. The four species that contributed 

 at least 1% to the total catch in 1970 comprised 

 94.6% of the catch in the lower river that year, 

 84.5% of the catch in 1969, and 95.9% of the 

 catch in 1968. 



BIOMASS OF FISHES 



The wide variety of sampling gear employed 

 during the fish inventory studies identified the 

 dominant species, their habitat preferences, rel- 

 ative abundances, and distributions within the 

 river system. Only the haul seine, however, pro- 

 vided satisfactory estimates of biomass because 

 the area sampled by the seine was known and 

 could be replicated with little variability, and be- 

 cause the littoral regions in which the haul seine 

 was used are frequented chiefly by young or 

 small fishes that are readily susceptible to cap- 

 ture. 



Average biomass (wet weight) of fishes in 

 the littoral waters of the estuary was estimated 

 as 0.93 g/m- for the entire year of sampling 

 (Table 13). Monthly averages of biomass did 

 not appear related to the migrations of species, 

 but varied erratically and ranged from 0.46 to 

 1.83 g/m^. Peak catches occurred in March, 

 August, September, and November. Atlantic 

 silverside made up 39.0% of the total biomass 

 in littoral waters and was followed by striped 



20 



