In 1974, Stations 11 through 13 (Fig. 8) were added to more precisely 

 determine the distribution of winter flounder larvae leaving the Niantic 

 River and to more closely associate offshore ichthyoplankton sampling 

 with entrainment studies. Winter flounder larvae were collected during 

 a minimum of 8 weeks at station 1 in the Niantic River to 20 weeks at 

 station 7 near White Point. They were more abundant in bottom samples 

 during both day and night and showed some differences in density by 

 station. 



Stations 14 through 16 were added in 1975 to provide additional 

 information about winter flounder larvae in inshore Niantic Bay and at 

 the boundaries of Millstone Bight. Samples were collected by various 

 tow types both day and night at all 16 stations. Larvae were taken for 

 a minimum of 10 weeks at station 1 to 21 weeks at station 3 off the 

 mouth of the Niantic River. Higher concentrations of winter flounder 

 larvae were found in the River and other inshore areas until mid-April, 

 after which they were distributed widely throughout the Bight (NUSCo 

 1976). 



During 197 5, analysis of the exisiting offshore winter flounder 

 data by the University of Rhode Island suggested that the objective of 

 field verification of the winter flounder larval dispersal model was not 

 possible from the sampling program (Vaughan et al. 1976). This was 

 mainly the result of large variability in the data due to inherent 

 plankton patchiness, long time periods between samples, and short-term 

 tidal variability. This resulted in a reduction of offshore sampling 

 effort in 1976 to biweekly or monthly samples at six stations (2, 5, 6, 

 8, 11, and 14). The sampling objective for winter flounder larvae 

 became one of general monitoring to make year-to-year comparisons and to 



68 



