We receivecl reports of excellent catches made by our Miami and Jacksonville 

 test reef sites. Fishermen in the Charleston, S.C. area also reported successful 

 fishing on our small test reef about 9. miles off Kiawah Island. To develop a more 

 stringent test of the utility of artificial reefs, we began planning a quantitative 

 study of angler use and fishing success. Our preliminary studies will incorporate 

 various techniques to determine the most reliable and efiicient method of execut- 

 ing a major creel survey. We will expand the study to obtain comparative esti- 

 mates of total harvest, fishing pressure and catch per unit of angling effort for 

 each reef site and adjacent natural fishing areas. 



Our survey of artificial fishing reefs for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is near 

 completion. When finished it will show the location, history, composition, and 

 fish life for all major Atlantic and Gulf coasts artificial reefs. 



Richard B. Stone and Chester Buchanan. 



Monitoring and fish population studies 



During 1968, we inspected all the test reef localities except Jacksonville in 

 underwater surveys. We also made a pre-construction survey for the Palm Beach, 

 Fla., site that showed the ocean nearly barren of fish before the reef was built — 

 only a few individual grunts, porgies, and snappers had been observed foraging 

 over the bottom. We also were able to inspect an artificial reef in the Virgin 

 Islands, built 8 years ago from 800 concrete building blocks. Fishes were abundant 

 and diverse, but the low biomass of encrusting organisms was the principal eco- 

 logical difference between tropical and temperate reefs. 



We conducted trapping and tagging experiments at the New Jersey and South 

 Carolina automobile reefs during spring and summer, and estimated catch rates 

 at the New York reef using multiple hook sampling rigs. We received one un- 

 usual tag return. A tautog marked and released on our New Jersey car reef in 

 November, 1967, was recaptured one year later in eastern Long Island Sound, 

 about 100 miles from the release point. 



Fish stomaciis and gonads were collected and preserved since analysis of the 

 prey and forage items can help us describe the degree of reef dependency of each 

 species. 



Population estimates of the larger black sea bass on the South Carolina auto- 

 mobile reef showed that 200 adults occupied the 0.1 acre reef in April and May. 

 A related species, the rock sea bass, showed a different behavior which should 

 reduce interspecific competition. Rock sea bass were confined to the lower reaches 

 of the reef and always in contact with the substrate. Black sea bass, the domi- 

 nant form, were widely distributed, occasionally resting on parts of the reef and 

 bottom but usually swimming in and around the reef. They do not appear to ex- 

 clude rock sea bass from occupying their restricted lower portion of the reef. 



Our Monmouth Beach, N.J., scrap tire reef (.03 acre) was observed to have a 

 five to ten foot profile. Initial occupants included tube-building polychaete worms, 

 small lobsters, and cunner. Our New York reef was inhabitated by hundreds of 

 2-3 pound squirrel hake last summer. In December we caught codfish as well as 

 tautog, cunner and squirrel hake. 



A variety of bottom animals died in considerable numbers along the northern 

 New Jersey coast in September. First reports were received from SCUBA divers 

 visiting wrecks. We investigated and found dead and dying lobsters, canerid 

 crabs, ocean pout, and cunner on both wrecks and natural reefs. In addition to 

 these species, sport divers reported seeing dead surf clams, sea stars, black sea 

 bass, and fiatfish. We recorded such low levels of dissolved oxygen (0.34-0.72 

 ml/liter) at one wreck where we found distressed fish and dead lobsters that the 

 cause of death here was obviously suffocation. We are not sure what caused the 

 oxygen deficiency. The coastal area affected was extensive, and apparently re- 

 stricted to depths of less than 100 feet. Die-off of the red tide blooms are 

 implicated. 



Larry Ogren and .James Chess. 



Distribution and ecology of attached marine organisms 



We continued investigation of attached marine organisms using the Multiple 

 Disc Sampling Apparatus (MDSA). The third MDSA was placed off Cow and 



