to bring together various expert scientists with the Northeast Utilities 

 Environmental Laboratory staff. One of the results of this meeting 

 should be a comprehensive study plan and sampling design to properly 

 measure larval growth, movements, mortality, and abundance in the Niantic 

 River. These parameters are vital for modelling efforts to estimate 

 power plant impact. 



2. The entrainment program has provided good estimates of the loss of 

 winter flounder larvae at the plant. Changes in sampling have resulted 

 in increased precision and the program has remained stable since 1975. 

 One factor not adequately addressed has been survival of larvae through 

 the cooling-water system and passage through the quarry. Presently, a 

 conservative 100% mortality of larvae is assumed for entrainment, although 

 experimental evidence suggested that larvae larger than 5 mm showed 

 little mortality when exposed to temperature increases of 13 C (NUSCo 

 1975). If impact assessment indicates potentially high risk to the 

 winter flounder population because of entrainment losses, then a program 

 designed to measure entrainment survival should be considered as a way 



to lessen the estimate of projected impact. 



3. There are some indications in the data from the discharge and at 

 station 5 as well as from the earlier, more extensive offshore work that 

 some fraction of the winter flounder larvae entrained may be from areas 

 other than the Niantic River. Disregarding other sources of larvae 

 would again make estimates of entrainment loss conservative when assessing 

 only the Niantic River stock. This is another topic that should be 

 discussed at the Fall 1982 workshop. The complex movements of both 



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