Perhaps more important has been the relative distribution of the smaller 

 fish. Length frequency distributions of winter flounder taken in the 

 trawl monitoring program indicated that age 1 and 2 winter flounder were 

 common at stations outside the Niantic River throughout the period of 

 the population surveys. Because of their occurrence outside the River 

 the true abundance of age 1 and possibly a segment of age 2 winter 

 flounder may be impossible to determine using the present techniques of 

 estimation. 



Comments regarding the estimation of the number of spawning females 

 will be made in another subsection of this report as that estimate 

 perhaps depends more upon life history information gathered as it does 

 upon the Jolly technique. 



Population estimates and CPUE 



A relationship seemingly exists between the annual population 

 estimates and the grand mean catch-per-unit-ef fort (CPUE) of winter 

 flounder from all tows made during the surveys (Fig. 2). Estimates of 

 absolute population size may not be necessary for use in various impact 

 analyses as long as relative annual changes in one or more indices of 

 abundance are known. Use of a relative index would also eliminate any 

 problems or uncertainties regarding the accuracy of the Jolly estimates. 

 Therefore the relationship between the population estimates and the 

 trawl CPUE were examined in further detail. 



The original intent of the trawling was only to catch winter flounder 

 for marking and for making recaptures. Consequently the tow times of 

 the hauls weren't standardized by time or distance but ranged from 1 to 

 44.5 min. The distance towed cannot be ascertained due to the uncertainty 

 in the relation between distance and time because of variable boat 



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