7-17 



pollution tolerant polychaetes. It was also one of two taxa which 

 survived a summer exposed directly to a power-plant thermal effluent in 

 York River, Virginia (Wariner and Brehmer, 1965) , and was one of the few 

 species collected in the discharge canal of LILCO's Northport Power 

 Plant (Hechtel, 1970). 



In addition to N. succinea, Capitellid worms (predominantly 

 Capitella capitata) and Spionid worms (primarily Polydora sp. ) were the 

 other polychaetes which were abundant in New Haven Harbor. Cunningham 

 (1972) reported Capitella capitata as the only capitellid he collected 

 at Long Wharf; he also reported both Polydora sp. and Streblospio bene- 

 dict! to be numerous spionids at his stations on the Long Wharf flat, 

 especially in summer months. These taxa may have been more numerous but 

 because of their size were not retained on the 2-mm mesh sieve used in 

 the UI program. Cunningham used 0.25 and 0.5-mm mesh sieves. Capi- 

 tellidae were absent at all New Haven stations during some sampling 

 periods (Figure 7-3) . When they were present, they were most numerous 

 in May. Spionidae also exhibited highly variable distributions and . 

 densities (Figure 7-3) . They were abundant only in October 1974 and 

 1975 at Long Wharf. Capitellids and Spionids have been rare at New 

 Haven stations since May 1976. Both taxa are deposit feeders with 

 planktonic larval stages. Wass (1967) and Daro and Polk (1973) both 

 include Capitella capitata and Polydora sp. as pollution tolerant spe- 

 cies. 



Barnacles {Balanus improvisus) were the only abundant crus- 

 taceans collected. Because they settle on hard substrates, their pop- 

 ulation fluctuations were not accurately reflected in this sampling 

 program; rather, Balanus abundances reflected chance collections of 

 rocks with the infaunal samples. However, over time its relative 

 distribution at the stations can be monitored. Naupliar, and cirripede 

 larvae were numerous in summer plankton samples (Section 4.0) and 

 barnacles were commonly found on any exposed shell, wood, or rock 

 located within a sample area. Balanus improvisus was commonly collected 

 at all stations in October but did not seem to overwinter well (Figure 

 7-4). 



