There are several potential impacts to the shore-zone finfish 

 assemblage posed by three-unit operation which could possibly be undetected 

 by the current sampling scheme. Samples are currently collected in the 

 2-h period preceding high tide — on the flood. The thermal plume generated 

 by three-unit operation has been modelled to encompass White Point and 

 Jordan Cove on an ebb tide (Fig. 5). While thermal tolerance levels of 

 shore-zone species are not expected to be exceeded, the thermal preferences 

 of some species might be exceeded in summer when the shore-zone water 

 temperatures are the highest, causing these species to avoid the area on 

 an ebb tide. Also, shore-zone finfish might be attracted to an area 

 that was warmer than normal in the spring and/or fall. While the moni- 

 toring program is more concerned with long term changes, informa-tion on 

 potential short term changes might be helpful in elucidating a long term 

 change, should one occur. Since samples are not collected on the ebb 

 tides or in March, April or November when such deviations in geographical 

 distributions most likely would occur, such changes would remain undetected. 

 In order to sample these situations, I suggest the sampling program be 

 increaed at least in the Jordan Cove area, to cover all months and the 

 ebb as well as the flood tide. 



Failures of the assumptions of statistical tests affect primarily 

 probability statements and significance levels. The use of means and 

 variances are still appropriate for descriptive purposes. Further, 

 sampling during a shore time period when shore-zone fish are known to 

 be present will reduce the occurrence of zero catches which is a direct 

 cause of the skewing of the underlying distribtuion, and reduce the 

 serial dependence. Thus more intensive sampling during the spring, 

 summer and fall at WP and JC to monitor shore-zone fish during these 

 times could provide data for parametric statistical tests. 



72 



