an apparent poor egg to larval survival in all 

 years examined, with the lowest during recent 

 years. Because the tautog takes 2 to 4 years 

 to reach maturity, the possible impact of en- 

 trainment by three-unit operations on adult 

 stock size will not be evident for several years. 



10. The abundances of all life history stages of 

 cunner collected near MNPS have recently 

 declined. Decreased impingement was attrib- 

 uted, in part, to the overall decline in total 

 impingement at Unit 2. Decreases in the 

 trawl catch were evident at stations closest 

 to MNPS. Part of the decreasing trend in 

 juvenile and adult abundance at station IN 

 could have been caused by physical changes 

 to the habitat, but reasons for the decline at 

 other stations are not known. In 1986, the 

 abundance of eggs and larvae were among 

 the lowest found since 1976. There was an 

 apparent low egg to larval survival for all 

 years examined, and, similar to tautog, poor- 

 est survival occurred in recent years. In ad- 

 dition, there were similar fluctuations in the 

 annual abundance of cunner and tautog lar- 

 vae, suggesting that factors affecting the sur- 

 vival of early life history stages were similar 

 for both species. Further monitoring will 

 continue to determine if the apparent decrease 

 in the cunner population was a result of nat- 

 ural long-term fluctuations or from the op- 

 eration of MNPS. 



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