11-19 



4. Therefore, no information relevant to defining impact of 

 NHHS was anticipated from further detailed review of 

 these species' occurrences in New Haven. 



Of the 16 selected species, five are categorized as demersal 

 and 11 as pelagic on the basis of habits as described by Bigelow and 

 Schroeder (1953) . Several of the pelagic species were more readily 

 captured in trawls than gill nets (Table 11-1) due to their relatively 

 small size at the age-class most abundant in New Haven. 



The following discussions deal with each of the 16 species 

 separately in terms of 1) importance, 2) distribution, 3) abundance, 

 and 4) comparison of New Haven with other Long Island Sound study sites. 



Winter Flounder (Pseudopleuronectes amerioanus) 



The winter flounder is abundant in Long Island Sound and its 

 estuaries. Although this species ranges from Newfoundland to Georgia, 

 it is most abundant (and sought for recreation and commercial sale) 

 along the southern New England Coast (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953) . 



The winter flounder has long been an important commercial 

 species, particularly with the advent of motor trawlers around the turn 

 of the twentieth century (Perlmutter, 1947) . Giron (1972) identified 

 winter flounder catch as the second most valuable landed in New Haven 

 during 1970; baitfish was the most valuable. Lobell (1939) and Perl- 

 mutter (1940) studied the fishery in New York waters. Merriman and 

 War f el (1944) described the winter flounder as the primary object of the 

 Connecticut trawl fishery in Block Island Sound. Briggs (1965) des- 

 cribed the sport fishery for winter flounder in various bays along the 

 south shore of Long Island, and estimated an average of 200,000 angler- 

 days per year, with annual sport catches reaching 2.5 million fish. 



Perlmutter (1947) and Poole (1966) noted that young winter 

 flounder tend to remain in very shallow subtidal and intertidal zones 

 and in small coves, while the larger fish are more common in deeper 



