11-109 



age and weight (Hess et al . , 1975), 27,000 juvenile winter flounder 

 would survive to approximately 1,755 sexually mature age III fish or 

 about 90 ago IV-VI cominorciai sized fish of about 1 pound. As pre- 

 viously mentioned, the recreational fishery of Long Island alone 

 annually harvests up to 2.5 million winter flounder. The rate of winter 

 flounder impingement appears to be unique to New Haven Harbor Station. 

 Since otter trawl catch-data have given no indication that winter 

 flounder abundances are higher in the area of the intake site than 

 elsewhere in the harbor, it seems likely that the high winter flounder 

 impingement partially reflects the large nvimbers of small winter flounder 

 normally present in New Haven Harbor. 



Menhaden were impinged in relatively large numbers in the 

 spring and fall of 1976 (Figure 11-18) , concurrently with observed mass 

 mortalities of this species. We believe that dead and disabled fish 

 accounted for a large proportion of the observed impingement (D. Damer, 

 pers. obs.); no similar impingement occurred in 1975 or 1977. 



Thermal Addition 



Distribution of heat in New Haven Harbor as affected by New 

 Haven Harbor Station is presented in Section 3.4. The harbor may be 

 characterized in teirms of degree of thermal addition in three cate- 

 gories: the discharge plume [elevated 1-8°C (15°F) ] , the mixing zone 

 (temperature detectably elevated, 0.5-lC) and the ambient zone (no 

 detectable increase) . In the discharge plume, fish are subject to rapid 

 temperature changes that may be of physiologically and behaviorally 

 significant magnitude. If this zone should cover a large or critical 

 portion of the harbor for spawning, feeding, or migration, impacts might 

 result. In the mixing zone, minor impacts might occur when ambient 

 temperatures are near critical values and even slight increases might be 

 important. No impacts would be anticipated in the ambient zone. 



