Figure 1. — Location of sampling areas Istippledl at the Pensacola Bay bridge and in the upper 

 East Bav and lower East Bav River. 



Bollman (1886), Gilbert (1891), and Evermann 

 and Kendall (1900). More recently, Bailey et al. 

 (1954) reported on collections of fishes from the 

 Escambia River, and Smith-Vaniz (1968) gave 

 records for the nearby Conecuh, Blackwater, and 

 Yellow Rivers. Fish were included in an inven- 

 tory by Cooley (in press) of the estuarine fauna 

 in the vicinity of Pensacola; our report includes 

 much data beyond the scope of Cooley 's compila- 

 tion. 

 METHODS AND AREAS SAMPLED 

 From December 1969 to October 1971, fishes 

 were collected from the Pensacola bridge with a 

 channel net and from the upper, constricted 

 4-mile portion (6.4 km) of East Bay and the lower 

 5 miles (8.0 km) of East Bay River with channel 

 net, surface trawl, and seine (Fig. 1). The channel 

 net, designed to catch larval menhaden in the sur- 

 face currents, has a mouth opening of 1 by 3 m 

 (3.3 by 9.8 ft) and tapers into a 1/2-m plankton 

 net (1.6 ft; Lewis et al., 1970). A current meter 

 suspended by floats near the net or towed with 

 the net provided a measure to determine the 

 volume of water strained. The 22-ft-wide trawl 

 (6.7 m) has 1/4-inch bar mesh (6.4 mm), and the 

 70-ft-long seine (21.3 m) has a funnel-shaped bag 

 of ^2-inch stretched mesh (4.0 mm). Salinities and 



water temperatures were measured with each 

 collection with a salinometer. Water transpar- 

 ency (Secchi disk), dissolved oxygen (Azide mod- 

 ification of Winkler method), and pH (color com- 

 parator) were determined once monthly in East 

 Bay and East Bay River during 1971. 



The Pensacola Bay bridge is about 9 miles 

 (14.5 km) from the Pensacola Inlet. The water, 

 about 30 ft deep (9.1 m), generally was stratified 

 with surface salinities ranging from 2.5 to 26.4 

 ^/oo and those at the bottom from 25.5 to 33.7. 

 Surface water temperature ranged from 5.2° to 

 31.2°C; bottom, 11.4° to 29.8°C. 



Scattered dense stands of marsh grass border 

 East Bay and East Bay River, and the immediate 

 watershed was spansely populated, nonindu-strial, 

 and heavily wooded. Most of the bay was less 

 than 5 ft deep (1.5 m). The river had a channel 

 depth of about 10 to 13 ft (3 to 4 m) and usually 

 a swift current. Tannins imparted a dark tea color 

 to the water. References to the lower bay in this 

 paper refer to the lowermost 1 mile (1.6 km) of 

 the constricted portion of East Bay. Salinity of 

 the lower Bay ranged from to 23.3 °/oo at the 

 surface and from 0.9 to 25.3 at the bottom; the 

 upper Bay, from to 19.9 °/oo surface and from 

 to 24.0 bottom. Salinity of the River 3 miles 



