SOUTHERN 

 MIDDLE ATLANTIC BIGHT 



1972 



YEAR 



Figure 10. — Adjusted annual mean bottom-water temperature 

 indices in four areas of the western North Atlantic continental shelf, 

 1968-76. Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine data are from Davis (1978). 



ing period. Evidence collected during many of the same 

 research cruises on which temperature data were col- 

 lected revealed shifts in location and catch of the follow- 

 ing species: 1) bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix; relatively 

 large catches in the autumn shifted from southern New 

 England to Georges Bank, an area of unknown occur- 

 rence as reported by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953); 2) 

 croaker, Micropogonias undulatus, occasional catches 

 during warmer autumns but none during cold years off 

 the North Carolina coasts; 3) mackerel, Scomber scom- 

 brus; catches normally widespread at most depths, con- 

 fined mostly seaward of the 100 m contour during the 

 cold springs of 1968-69 and 1971; 4) smooth dogfish, 

 Mustelus canis; larger, more frequent and northward 

 catches to southern New Jersey in the spring since 1972; 

 5) spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias; a probable shift of 

 part of the southern New England population onto 

 Georges Bank during warm springs and catches de- 

 creased south of Hudson Canyon during the colder 

 autumns; 6) spotted hake, Urophycis regius; generally 

 avoid the coastal cold cells and their autumn catches are 

 associated with the size and distribution of these waters; 



7) fourspot flounder, Hippoglossina oblonga; during the 

 coldest springs inshore catches small and irregular with 

 concentrations synonymous with the 100 m contour; and 



8) northern sea robin, Prionotus carolinus; same distri- 

 butional behavior and catch characteristics as H. 

 oblonga. It is not implied that these examples of changes 

 in distributions and/or catches are explicitly related to 

 changes in water temperature, but that some relation- 

 ships probably exist since most of the species are not 

 commercially fished and their distributions were deter- 

 mined on a basis of research ship surveys. 



It should be noted that although Colton (1972) 

 observed no significant changes in the distribution of 

 four species of groundfish from Nova Scotia to Long 

 Island during a cooling period, there was an extension of 

 the southern range of American plaice, Hippoglossoides 

 platessoides, and a contraction of the northern range of 



butterfish, Peprllus triacanthus. Also, Taylor et al. 

 (1957) found evidence of northward shifts in the distri- 

 bution and abundance of several marine animals during 

 a warming period in the Gulf of Maine, but there was no 

 obvious alteration of the general marine fauna. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



I wish to thank the following personnel from the North- 

 east Fisheries Center: John Lamont and Samuel Nicker- 

 son for preparation of charts; Marvin Grosslein for help- 

 ful suggestions with the text and data analyses; John 

 Colton, Merton Ingham, and George Kelly for reviewing 

 the manuscript; and the many anonymous biologists and 

 technicians who collected the temperature data. 



LITERATURE CITED 



BEARDSLEY, R. C. W. C. BOICOURT, and D. V. HANSEN. 



1976. Physical oceanography of the Middle Atlantic Bight. InM. 

 G. Gross (editor). Middle Atlantic Continental Shelf and the New 

 York Bight, vol. 2, p. 20-34. Am. Soc. Limnol. Oceanogr., 

 Lawrence, Kansas. 



BELTZ, J. R., J. E. JOHNSON, D. L. COHEN, and F. B. PRATT. 

 1974. An annotated bibliography of the effects of temperature on 

 fish with special reference to the freshwater and anadromous spe- 

 cies of New England. Univ. Mass. Amherst, Agric. Exp. Stn., 

 Res. Bull. 605, 97 p. 

 BIGELOW, H. B. 



1933. Studies of the waters on the continental shelf, Cape Cod to 

 Chesapeake Bay. I. The cycle of temperature. Mass. Inst. Tech- 

 nol., Pap. Phys. Oceanogr. Meteorol. 2(4), 135 p. 

 BIGELOW, H. B„ and W. C. SCHROEDER. 



1953. Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Fish. 

 Bull. 53, 577 p. 

 BIGELOW, H. B., and M. SEARS. 



1935. Studies of the waters on the continental shelf, Cape Cod to 

 Chesapeake Bay. II. Salinity. Mass. Inst. Technol., Pap. Phys. 

 Oceanogr. Meteorol. 4(1), 94 p. 

 BOWMAN, M. J. 



1977. Hydrographic properties. MESA New York Bight Atlas 

 Monogr. 1. New York Sea Grant Inst., Albany, 78 p. 



BRETT, J. R. 



1969. Temperature and fish. Chesapeake Sci. 10:275-276. 

 CHASE. J. 



1972. Oceanographic observations along the east coast of the 

 United States, January-December 1970. U.S. Coast Guard 

 Oceanogr. Rep. 53, 145 p. 

 CLARK, S. H„ and B. E. BROWN. 



1977. Changes in biomass of finfishes and squids from the Gulf of 

 Maine to Cape Hatteras, 1963-74, as determined from research 

 vessel survey data. Fish. Bull., U.S. 75:1-21. 



COLTON, J. B., Jr. 



1968. Recent trends in subsurface temperatures in the Gulf of 

 Maine and contiguous waters. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 25:2427- 

 2437. 



1972. Temperature trends and the distribution of groundfish in 

 continental shelf waters, Nova Scotia to Long Island. Fish. Bull., 

 U.S. 70:637-657. 



COLTON, J. B., Jr., and R. R. STODDARD. 



1973. Bottom-water temperatures on the continental shelf, Nova 

 Scotia to New Jersey. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Rep. 

 NMFS CIRC-376, 55 p. 



DAVIS, C. W. 



1978. Seasonal bottom-water temperature trends in the Gulf of 

 Maine and on Georges Bank, 1963-75. U.S. Dep. Commer., 

 NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS SSRF-725, 17 p. 



GROSSLEIN, M. D. 



1969. Groundfish survey program of BCF Woods Hole. Commer. 

 Fish. Rev. 31(8-9):22-30. 



12 



