period contained some months when two sam- 

 pling trips were made, a direct comparison of 

 1977-82 to 1983-86 data cannot be made, but the 

 information should be sufficient to determine 

 long-term trends. For the potentially impacted 

 species in the Millstone area, sufficient data were 

 available from the SNPS data base for compari- 

 sons with egg abundance of anchovies, cunner, 

 and tautog; larval abundance of sand lance, an- 

 chovies, cunner, and tautog; and trawl catches of 

 anchovies, cunner, and tautog. Additional trawl 

 data were available from the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service (NMFS) ground trawl survey 

 (Grosslein 1974; Azarovitz 1981). Data were ob- 

 tained from selected strata off southern Ix)ng Is- 

 land, NY; Rhode Island; and southwestern Mas- 

 sachusetts. These data were provided by NMFS 

 as the annual 5-mean for both spring and fall 

 surveys. Because of limited catches of most po- 

 tentially affected species, only sand lance data 

 were sufficient for comparisons. 



Results and Discussion 



Over 100 fish taxa from ichthyoplankton, 

 impingement, trawl, and seine samples have been 

 collected in the Millstone area from 1976 through 

 May 1987 (Appendix I). The most common 

 were American sand lance {Ammodytes 

 americanus), winter flounder {Pseudopleuronecles 

 americanus), anchovies (Anchoa milchilli and A. 

 hepsetus), sticklebacks {Gasteroslem aculeatus and 

 G. wheatlandi), silversides [Menidia menidia and 

 M. betylUnd), Atlantic tomcod {Microgadus 

 tomcod), grubby {Myoxocephalus aenaeus), skates 

 (Raja erinacea, R. ocellata, and R. eg/anteria), 

 scup {Stenolomus chrytsnps), windowpane 

 (Sc.ophthalmus aquosus), tautog {Tauloga onitis), 

 and cunner {Tautogolahrus adspersus). These taxa 

 were typical of fish assemblages found in LIS 

 (Greeley 1938; Warfel and Merriman 1944; 

 Wheatland 1956; Richards 1959; Pearcy and Rich- 

 ards 1962; McMugh 1972; Saila and Pratt 1973; 

 Geomet Tech. 1983). Important recreational and 

 commercial fishes, such as, bluefish {Pomalomus 

 sallatrix) and striped bass {Morone saxatilh), that 

 occurred in the Millstone area were not susceptible 

 tp our sampling gear. However, they were rare 



in the entrainment and impingement collections, 

 so the potential impact of MNPS on these species 

 is minimal. The following is a summary of the 

 fishes collected in each sampling program to show 

 which taxa and life history stages predominated 

 in the Millstone area. 



Trawl monitoring 



In the trawl program, over 90 taxa of juvenile 

 and adult fishes were taken at six stations in the 

 Millstone area during the past 1 1 years (Appen- 

 dices II and III). The demersal fishes collected 

 in the trawl monitoring program were similar to 

 those found in Narragansctt Bay (Oviatt and 

 Nixon 1973). Since 1976, six fish taxa comprised 

 over 80% of the trawl catch and winter flounder 

 accounted for over 40% of the total. The winter 

 flounder was caught throughout the year in the 

 Millstone area and due to its commercial and 

 recreational importance is discussed in detail in a 

 separate section (see Winter F'lounder Studies sec- 

 tion). The second most abundant species (15%) 

 was the scup, which was found from .June through 

 October. Most scup were juveniles and over 40% 

 of them were caught at NB. Anchovies, which 

 accounted for over 8% of the trawl catch, were 

 also found primarily at NB from August through 

 October and were primarily young-of-the-year. 

 Our demersal trawl does not uniformly sample 

 anchovies, most likely because of their location 

 in the water column, small size, and patchy dis- 

 tribution. Annual catches of anchovies were vari- 

 able and the highest catch occurred in 1985. 

 Windowpane and skates, both resident taxa, to- 

 gether accounted for an additional 13% of the 

 catch. Both were most often found at the deeper 

 water stations (TT and BR). Silversides were the 

 sixth most abundant taxon caught by trawl. They 

 were the dominant shore-zone taxon in the Mill- 

 stone area and were caught in trawls during the 

 the winter, primarily from October through Feb- 

 ruary. 



Annual 5-mean catches (all stations combined) 

 were calculated to examine year to year variation 

 for the six dominant taxa in the trawl monitoring 

 program (Table I). For taxa that occur seasonally. 



260 



