Juveniles of similar size continued to appear until mid -February, indicating 

 that the spawning period of the striped mullet in waters off the Texas coast takes 

 place from mid -October to about the latter part of January. 



Although white or silver mullet, M. curema Cuvier and Valenciennes, are 

 known to occur in Texas waters, none were taken during the period of study. It 

 was not possible to exannine each of the thousands of juvenile mullet collected, 

 but all that were examined proved to be M. cepfialus, and lagoon specimens, there- 

 fore, are considered to be this species. 



ATHERINIDAE Silversides 



The rough silverside, Memhras vagrans vagrans (Goode and Bean), and tide-water 

 silverside, Menidia beryllina pensacolae (Goode and Bean), are both represented in the 

 collections. Scale counts and examination of scales showed that the former were 

 by far the dominant species. As no differentiation of species was determined for 

 many of the collections, they were not considered separately. 



Silversides are year-round inhabitants of the area, appearing in small, 

 discrete schools of 50 to several hundred fish. They occurred in greatest abundance 

 from May through July, and in small numbers during the months of December 

 and January. 



POLYNEMIDAE Threadfins 



Polydactylus octonemus (Girard) Threadfin, Eight -Fingered 



Threadfin 



Approximately 500 threadfins, 7.5 to 9.0 cm. in length, were taken in a single 

 beach-seine haul in area "A" on April 23, 1956. A few, in the same size cate- 

 gory, were dip-netted around the lagoon mouth earlier in the month. Except for a 

 single 7.0-centimeter specimen dip-netted in October 1955, these are the only 

 capture records of the species within the defined area. 



The threadfin is undoubtedly more abundant than indicated by these records 

 of capture, for they are often taken in large numbers by beach seiners and snaall 

 shrimp trawlers in Bolivar Roads. 



POMATOMIDAE Bluefishes 



Pomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus) Bluefish 



Bluefish occurred irregularly around the mouth of the lagoon during late 

 spring and summer. Most were in the size category commonly referred to as 

 "snapper blues", that is, from 12.4 to 20.0 cm. The smallest specimen taken 

 measured 5.1 cm. As is characteristic of the species, bluefish revealed their 

 presence by their frenzied pursuit of smaller fishes, frequently breaking water 

 in the process. 



CARANGIDAE Jacks 



Caranx hippos (Linnaeus) Common Jack 



Fifteen juveniles, from 3.4 to 4.5 cm. in length, dip-netted July 8, 1954, one 

 juvenile of 3.5 cnn., dip-netted July 3, 1956, and two juveniles 3.6 and 4.0 cm., 



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