were required for water entering the Nlantic River from a tributary to 

 reach Niantic Bay. The seaward flushing during Stage 2 development 

 appeared to be the primary dispersal mechanism into Niantic Bay, The 

 temporal occurrence of Stage 3, 4, and 5 larvae was similar in both 

 locations, except that Stage 5 larvae were abundant approximately 2 

 weeks longer in the bay. 



Growth 



The length of time for a winter flounder larvae to pass through a 

 particular developmental stage was estimated by determining the number 

 of days between the first increase in abundance for successive 

 developmental stages, as if following a cohort. In the Niantic River, 

 the sampling dates for first rapid increases in abundance were March 4 

 for Stage 2, April 14 for Stage 3, April 26 for Stage 4, and May 12 for 

 Stage 5 (Fig. 11), The number of days between these dates was an 

 estimate of developmental time and totaled 41 days for Stage 2, 12 days 

 for Stage 3, and 16 days for Stage 4. Stage 1 developmental time was 

 not estimated from the field collection data because of the obvious 

 undersampling of these larvae. Based on laboratory rearing of yolk-sac 

 larvae (Buckley 1982) , the yolk-sac stage ranged from 9 to 13 days at 

 temperatures of 5 and 2 C, respectively. Water temperatures in the 

 Niantic River during the last 2 weeks of February ranged from 2 to 4 C 

 and the estimated yolk-sac stage developmental time was about 11 days. 

 The estimated total larval development time in 1983 from hatching to 

 transformation into a juvenile was approximately 80 days. 



Examination of the length-frequency distributions within 

 developmental stages by 0.5-mm size-classes showed a distinct 

 progression in successive stages (Fig. 12), The predominant 

 size-classes were 2,5 to 3.0 mm (89% of the total) for Stage 1, 3.0 to 

 5.0 mm (85%) for Stage 2, 5.0 to 7.5 mm (90%) for Stage 3, 6.5 to 8.5 mm 

 (88%) for Stage 4, and 6.5 to 8.5 mm (89%) for Stage 5. The predominant 

 size-classes for each developmental stage were clearly separated for 

 Stages 1 though 3, but overlapped for Stages 4 and 5. Apparently, 

 growth during Stages 4 and 5 occurred mostly in body depth with little 

 increase in length. Laroche (1981) reported that for winter flounder 



37 



