more abundant later in spring during previous years as surveys then 

 Included all of April and part of May. The abundance estimate of 

 immature winter flounder in the Niantic River may not have accurately 

 reflected their absolute abundance as data from the trawl monitoring 

 program indicated that they were present throughout the area during this 

 time. Their presence in the river may have been influenced by other 

 factors such as water temperature. 



Abundance of winter flounder 15 cm and larger was also measured by 

 trawl CPUE during the survey (Table 6) . The trawl data were determined 



Table fi. Mean and median CPUE of Nlantlc Rlvor winter flounder from 1976 through 1983 



Zero when data Is distributed eymetrlcally 



to be non-normally distributed and positively skewed, so the median was 

 chosen as the most representative catch statistic; the means were 

 included as a comparison. Standardization of the trawling lessened the 

 variability of the 1983 data. The coefficient of variation was reduced 

 (51%; half that of 1982) and skewness lessened, resulting in a close 

 correspondence between the median and the mean. Nevertheless, the 95% 

 confidence interval around each annual median was generally similar in 

 magnitude for all years. Comparisons between annual median CPUE and 

 abundance estimates (Fig. 3) showed different trends in several years. 

 The most striking difference occurred in 1982, which had a similarly 

 large abundance estimate but a significantly smaller median catch than 

 1981. The smallest median CPUE and 95% confidence interval was in 1977 

 but the abundance estimate that year had the largest confidence interval 

 and was similar in magnitude to that found for 1978 through 1980. 



18 



