4-3 



and Pseudocalanus minutus. The two Acartia species constitute the 

 dominant zooplankters; Acartia hudsonica is characteristically the 

 winter-spring dominant, while A. tonsa is typically the dominant in 

 summer and fall. Among the meroplankton (embryonic and larval stages of 

 animals which are not planktonic later in life) , principal forms include 

 the larvae of benthic invertebrates, such as barnacles, polychaete 

 worms, molluscs, and echinoderms, as well as the larvae of epibenthic 

 crustaceans (e.g., shrimps, crabs, and lobsters). The tychoplankton 

 (transient epibenthic animals) was relatively sparse and was represented 

 primarily by harpacticoid copepods. 



Finfish eggs and larvae captured by net tows and reported for 

 Long Island Sound and contiguous marine waters represent only a portion 

 of the fish fauna inhabiting or frequenting the area. Early life stages 

 of anadromous species are not present in Sound waters but are encountered 

 in fresh or brackish waters. Some species that spawn in marine waters 

 produce demersal eggs that sink and either lie loosely or are attached 

 to various types of bottom substrate; generally, only newly hatched 

 larvae of these species are found in the plankton. Fishes that shed 

 planktonic eggs in marine waters tend to be those which range over wide 

 areas of the open coast and/or continental shelf, and have a dispersed 

 spawning pattern (TRIGOM-PARC, 1974). For Long Island Sound and vicinity, 

 late winter through mid-summer is usually the period of high ichthyo- 

 plankton abundance, while for individual species, the planktonic period 

 typically averages 3-5 months (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953) . Finfish 

 species that are numerically dominant in the ichthyoplankton of Long 

 Island Sound include eggs and larvae of Tautogolabrus adspersus (cunner) , 

 Anchoa mitchilli (bay anchovy) , Brevoortia tyrannus (menhaden) , and 

 Enchelyopus cimbrius (four-beard rockling) ; eggs of Tautoga onitis 

 (tautog) ; and larvae of Ammodytes americanus (sand lance) and Pseudo- 

 pleuronectes americanus (winter flounder) . In Long Island sound and 

 adjacent waters successional periods of dominance in the ichthyoplankton 

 appear to be as follows: E. cimbrius, mid-winter through late spring; 

 A. americanus and P. americanus , early to late spring; T. adspersus , T. 

 onitis, and A. mitchilli , late spring through mid-summer; and B. tyrannus, 

 late spring and returning again in early fall (Wheatland, 1956; Richards, 

 1959; Caplan, 1977) . 



