fish marked in week 3 and recaptured in week 6 (n=8; Table 3) as 

 compared to recaptures of the same group of fish in the previous and 

 following weeks (15 and 14, respectively). Further examination of the 

 data showed that this decline took place at station 51, but no 

 explanation can be offered for this unusual decline in recaptures. The 

 Jolly abundance estimate was recalculated as if the number of week 3 

 recaptures In week 6 was 14 instead of the 8 recaptures actually used. 

 The resulting increase in estimated abundance was less than 2%, so the 

 error had only minor consequences in the calculation. 



For comparison with previous years, the annual abundance estimates 

 were adjusted to account for the 5-cm difference in size of winter 

 flounder marked between 1983 and previous years. Adjustments were also 

 made to account for differences in the number of weeks sampled among 

 years. Some differences were reduced by comparing estimates for just 

 the spawning period (Table 5; Appendices 1-7). The total number of 



Table 5. Annual estimates of spawning population abundances and total egg production for Niantlc River winter 



flounder from 197ft through 1983. 



Number of 

 Number of Population of ±2 standard Population of 12 standard spawning Mean Total egg 

 weeks for winter flounder errors winter flounder errors females fecundity production 



. 15 cm (xlO-*) (xlO^) > 20 en (xlO-') (xlO^) (xlO^) (xlO^) (xio') 



48.2 11.5 38.8 - - - 



37.4 19.4 27.7 



25.4 12.1 17.3 

 26.7 - 14.0 

 27.2 15.3 13.1 

 62.9 10.8 49.3 



77.5 13.4 58.8 

 49.4 - 42.0 15.6 



winter flounder larger than 20 cm in 1983 apparently declined about 28% 

 from 1982 and 15% from 1981, but remained larger than estimates made 

 during the late 1970' s. 



Based on the proportional method of calculation, the number of 

 winter flounder smaller than 20 cm was 45,789; 38,482 of these were 

 smaller than 15 cm, a decline of more than a third from 1982. Fewer 

 winter flounder between 15 and 20 cm were taken in 1983 than in previous 

 years (Table 5) . One explanation for this difference may have been the 

 earlier completion of the survey in 1983. Smaller winter flounder were 



17 



