11-73 



thousand to 20 thousand fish per tow occurred in September in 1973 and 

 1974. From 1973 through 1975 the highest yields were from Station 5 and 

 Station 19. These two stations have little in common except that they 

 are both on the western side of the harbor remote from the site of New 

 Haven Harbor Station. From 1975 to 1977 otter trawl catches have de- 

 clined somewhat, although anchovies still occurred more frequently in 

 1977 catches than in 1971 and 1972 catches. 



Beach seine catches exhibited a slightly different temporal 

 pattern (Figure 11-26) . Anchovies were not taken by seine until 1974, 

 when the catch (totalling 57 fish) was restricted to the months of June 

 and July. Both catch frequency and abundance increased in 1975 and 

 1976, with anchovies taken at 3 of the 4 sampling locations. In 1977, 

 the average catch per effort during the peak month of June was approx- 

 imately 150 fish. No anchovies were taken at the Long Wharf station in 

 any year. Taken together, the trawl and seine data suggest that anchovy 

 schools tend to favor certain specific locations over others; the de- 

 terminants of such behavior are unknown. 



Anchovies have been found to be impinged in small quantities 

 (1 to 16 fish per day) on the New Haven Harbor traveling screens in 

 every month except January; however, impingement is most consistent 

 throughout the siommer. Comparatively high rates of impingement (35 to 

 45 fish per day) were observed on the following dates: 12 August, 1975; 

 8 June, 1976; and 29 November, 1977. Observations similar to these have 

 been reported for other Long Island Sound power plants (LILCO, 1978) . 



In Long Island Sound, Richards (1959) has indicated that 

 spawning begins in early June and continues until early September, with 

 the peak activity occurring in late July or early August. Eggs and 

 larvae were identified from New Haven Harbor ichthyoplankton samples 

 beginning in 1974. These data indicate local egg production to have 

 begun as early as May (in 1976 and 1977) and that peak densities in- 

 creased from 0.07 per m in July 1974 to 113 per m in July of 1977. At 



3 

 the same time peak larval densities have declined from 5 per m in July 



3 

 1974 to 0.02 per m in October 1977. Notwithstanding the rather infre- 



