the I irst ox])f r linen t wj-re rcc-npturcd nnd had hotli hr;inds and tra^s. Five 

 additional t Isli had a brand similar lo that used but no tag. However, 

 two of these may have been under 23 cm in 1982 and although branded 

 would not have been tagged then and another one was probably branded in 

 1980; only two fish definitely had scars that indicated a tag loss. 

 Twenty-two fish from the second experiment were also recaptured; 12 had 

 tags (2 lost brands) and 10 had just brands, a ratio similar to the one 

 in the original marking experiment. Combining data, the best estimate 

 of disc-tag loss was about 6% after 1 year. Two of the 91 fish branded 

 and tagged during 1983 had lost tags; the 2% rate of immediate tag loss 

 was similar to that reported in NUSCo (1983). 



Early life history studies 

 Larval stage 



Abundance and distribution 



A successive pattern of winter flounder larval abundance was found 

 in Niantic River and Bay in 1983 (Fig, 9). Larval densities reached 

 peak abundance in the mid and upper portion of the river during the 

 first 2 weeks of March at stations A (> 300/500 ra^) and B (> 600/500 

 m^) . Peak abundance at station C (> 600/500 m^) occurred later during 

 the last half of April and the first part of May. Coincident with high 

 abundance at station C, a second peak was noted at B (> 400/500 m ) and 

 maximum abundance occurred in Niantic Bay at stations NB ( > 600/500 m^) 

 and EN ( > 500/500 m^) . A decline in larval abundance began at station A 

 in late March, followed by station B during late April. Stations C, NB, 

 and EN showed a similar decline from May through June. The successive 

 temporal pattern in peak abundance was followed by a decline from the 

 upper to the lower river; Niantic Bay was similar to the lower river. 

 In the Mystic River, Pearcy (1962) found approximately the same upper to 

 lower river pattern, which was attributed to seaward flushing. 



Weekly fluctuations in larval densities have usually been attributed 

 to sampling variability or error. These short-term fluctuations were 

 evident in the winter flounder larval densities found in the Niantic 

 River and Bay (Fig. 9). An almost identical pattern of change in weekly 

 densities was found at B, C, and NB beginning in the first week of 



32 



