11-58 



both 1972 and 1973 (Figure 11-20) . Comparable otter trawl catches (30 

 to 200 fish) have been recorded for March 1973 and May 1972. Various 

 gill-net stations have yielded catches of 20 to 40 fish in May or June 

 for the years 1975, 1976, and 1977. The sporadic occurrence of these 

 catches, with no recognizable spatial pattern, suggests that the fishes 

 caught were in transit to spawning grounds (March, 1973) or returning 

 from spawning (May-July) . Overall, it is apparent that visits of sxib- 

 stantial numbers of these fish are restricted to spring and early sum- 

 mer. 



Only one impinged alewife has been reported (on 28 July 1977) 

 since the inception of the weekly traveling screen census at New Haven 

 Harbor Station. Compared to the frequency of impingement reported at 

 other Long Island Sound power plants, this is an extremely low rate. 

 Alewife larvae have never been reported in ichthyoplankton collections 

 because larvae mature into juveniles and remain in freshwater until 

 fall; therefore, it is difficult to assess the magnitude of the local 

 reproductive effort. The eggs adhere to freshwater stream substrates so 

 it is unlikely they would be abundant in Harbor collections. 



Bluebaak Herring (Alosa aest-Cvalis ) 



The blueback herring is so similar in appearance and habit to 

 the alewife that even experienced fishermen frequently mistake one 

 species for the other. The range of the blueback, however, extends 

 further southward than that of the alewife. 



Blueback herring have proven to be at least as infrequent in 

 New Haven Harbor collections as the alewife. Juveniles (4 to 5 cm long) 

 were particularly abundant in otter trawl collections of August 1971 (up 

 to 1560 fish) and in the beach seine hauls of July 1972 and 1973 (up to 

 1700 fish) (Figure 11-21). Since that time, however, neither collection 

 method has yielded more than ten fish of any size in any one sample 

 (Figure 11-22) . 



(Text continued on page 11-63) 



