Seasonal Occurrence of Young Gulf Menhaden and 

 Other Fishes in a Northwestern Florida Estuary 



MARLIN E. TAGATZ» and E. PETER H. WILKENS^ 



ABSTRACT 



Gulf menhaden, Brevoortin patronus, and other species of fishes were collected by plankton 

 net, seine, and surface trawl from Pensacola Bay, Kast Bay, and Fast Bay Eiiver from Decem- 

 ber 1969 to October 1971. Relative abundance, distribution, and relative growth of menhaden 

 are given from the time they enter the estuary as larvae in liecember to the time they emi- 

 grate to the Gulf of Mexico as juveniles in September. 



Eighty-four species of fishes, representing 46 families, were captured. The number and 

 length range of each species by month are presented for the areas from which it was caught. 

 Also included are the salinity and temperature ranges at capture. Four species were not pre- 

 viously recorded from Pensacola estuaries. 



INTRODUCTION 



Of the three .species of menhaden spawning 

 in the Gulf of Mexico, only the young of the Gulf 

 menhaden, Brcvoortia patronus, occur in north- 

 west Florida. The distribution of young Gulf 

 menhaden is from southern Florida to the Mexi- 

 can border; of yellowfin menhaden, B. smithi, 

 from Sapelo Island, Ga., to Tampa Bay, Fla.; and 

 of finescale menhaden, B. gunteri, from Mata- 

 gorda, Tex., to the Gulf of Campeche in the west- 

 ern Gulf of Mexico (Reintjes and Pacheco, 1966). 

 The distribution of eggs, larvae, and adults of 

 Gulf menhaden in waters off the Florida coast 

 indicates that spawning takes place near shore 

 (within the 10-fm contour) from November 

 through March (Turner, 1969). After an estimated 

 3 to 5 weeks from hatching, the larvae enter 

 estuaries where further development occurs 

 (Reintjes, 1969). 



This report concerns the utilization of a Pensa- 



' Atlantic Estuarine Fisheries Center. National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, NOAA; present address, Environmental 

 Protection Agency, Gulf Breeze Laboratory, Gulf Breeze, 

 FL 32561. 



^Atlantic Estuarine Fisheries Center. National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, NOAA; present address. Southeast Fish- 

 eries Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 

 Miami, FL 33149. 



cola, Fla., estuary by young Gulf menhaden and 

 by other species of fishes. Estuarine areas serve 

 as nurseries for an extended period in the life 

 cycle of menhaden and may be essential for the 

 larvae to metamorphose (June and Chamberlin, 

 1959) and to undergo gonadogenesis (Combs, 

 1969). The seasonal distribution of young Gulf 

 menhaden in an estuarine habitat of northwest 

 Florida was studied for additional knowledge of 

 the life history of this very important commer- 

 cial species. The extent of that portion of the life 

 history of Gulf menhaden that occurs in inside 

 waters has been investigated in two other areas; 

 monthly length frequency distributions were ob- 

 tained by Suttkus (1956) for Lake Pontchartrain, 

 La. and by Springer and Woodburn (1960) for the 

 Tampa Bay area. 



We collected other fishes to determine the 

 clupeids and other species associated with men- 

 haden in the estuary, to compile a list of some of 

 the fishes occurring in an area characterized by a 

 paucity of specimen records (upper East Bay and 

 East Bay River), and to provide seasonal occur- 

 rence data on Pensacola fishes as a possible aid to 

 any studies on their life histories or on the effects 

 of decreased water quality on their local distribu- 

 tion. Early listings of fishes from the Pensacola 

 area were given by Jordan and Gilbert (1882), 



