11-102 



Furthermore, published values for other estuaries have no obvious bear- 

 ing on a large, nutrient-rich degraded estuary such as New Haven. Mark- 

 and-recapture studies are inappropriate because of the small size of 

 fish captured, implying probable high tag-mortality that would inflate 

 estimated emigration rates. 



Published natural and fishing mortality rates probcibly do not 

 apply in New Haven Harbor; natural mortality must include (for our pur- 

 poses) mortalities due to disease, starvation, predation, and impacts 

 associated with other industrial and municipal discharges to the harbor. 

 In light of the possible magnitude of these factors it would be unreal- 

 istic to assvune natural mortality rates in such a stressed environment 

 to be similar to those determined in relatively pristine locales. 

 Fishing mortality would not apply to the fish characteristic of New 

 Haven, which are either locally non-commercial, non-sport species 

 (menhaden) or are uncommon in size-classes desirable in commercial or 

 sport markets (winter flounder) . 



In conclusion, we question the applicability and accuracy of 

 modeling techniques that utilize iinverified estimates of initial popula- 

 tion, mortality, fecundity and other parameters critical to the results 

 of the simulation. We prefer, in the absence of verified, site-specific 

 estimates of these parameters, to restrict our analysis to gross com- 

 parisons of preoperational vs. operational species abundance as reflected 

 by catch. 



Passage through the Cooling Water System: Pumped Entrainment 



Recent studies of fish egg and larval entrainment mortalities 

 (Cannon et aJ . , 1978) have indicated survival rates considerably higher 

 than had been determined from earlier efforts (Marcy, 1975, 1976) , at 

 least at water temperatures below lethal thermal thresholds (generally 

 ca. SCO . 



