11-79 



Weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) 



Weakfish and scup share nearly identical inshore-offshore and 

 winter-summer migratory habits, as well as the tendency to school. The 

 timing of spawning during the warmer months is also similar. Weakfish, 

 also known as squeteague and grey sea trout, are an important food and 

 game fish, popular particularly with anglers (Perlmutter, Miller and 

 Poole, 1956). They are voracious feeders, consxaming a wide variety of 

 marine animals, including arthropods, molluscs, annelid worms, and vast 

 quantities of other smaller fish (Stickney, Taylor and White, 1975; Chao 

 and Musick, 1977) . 



During July- September New Haven Harbor surveys, juvenile weak- 

 fish (3 to 18 cm) were consistently caught by the hundreds in otter 

 trawls, whereas adults (25 to 70 cm) have been captured, several fish at 

 a time, mostly in gill nets (Figure 11-30) . In 1971 and 1974, August 

 otter trawl catches at Station 8 yielded 1200 and 2500 juveniles, 

 respectively; in 1975, nearly 3000 juveniles were captured in August at 

 Station 11 (Figure 11-31) . Catches of both immature and mature weakfish 

 have occurred exclusively from May through October in trawls and gill 

 nets. Richards (1963) also took juvenile weakfish at her Station 3A 

 (about 13 kn WSW of New Haven Harbor) in September and October 1956. 



Impingement of weakfish on New Haven Harbor Station traveling 

 screens has been sporadic. Two incidents all involving juvenile fish (7 to 



18 cm) , have occurred; the first was in August 1976 and the second in October 



* 

 1977 (Figure 11-32) . Fewer weakfish were caught in samples from Niantic Bay 



(NUSCO, 1977), Shoreham, NY (NYOSL, 1974) and the Mystic River, CT 



estuary (Pearcy and Richards, 1962) than have been captured in New 



Haven. The magnitude of difference in weakfish abundance between New 



Haven Harbor and other Long Island Sound areas cannot be precisely 



determined because of differences in sampling techniques and schedules, 



but the mean weakfish catch per hour of trawling effort (all months and 



* _ .__, 



Although the study period closed as of October 1977 weakfish continued to be 

 impinged through December 1977, at an average daily rate of 58 in November 

 and 29 in December. 



(Text continued on page 11-83) 



