apex, contains several species of Ampelisca which are considered 

 important elements of this faunal group, and in the silty sand areas 

 of southern New England sounds they are numerical dominants. 

 Ampeliscids also dominated many estuarine silty sand faunas, e.g., 

 in southern New England (Sanders 1958), in Great Bay, N.J. 

 (Durand and Nadeau 1972), in Chesapeake Bay (Feeley 1967), and 

 in the Delaware Bay area (Watling and Maurer 1972). In our apex 

 study, however, only one species of Ampelisca (A. verrilli) was col- 

 lected, in moderate numbers, in low organic, fine to medium sandy 

 sediments. The one species of amphipod. Leptocheirus pinguis, 

 which was moderately abundant in high organic, silty sediments, 

 was collected only at the southernmost stations of the upper Hud- 

 son Shelf Valley (Fig. 63). while Steimle and Stone (1973) col- 

 lected it in the northern Christiaensen Basin in 1967. 



The paucity of amphipods in the New York Bight apex and Rari- 

 tan Bay (McGrath 1974) would appear to be very good evidence 

 that man's use of the area has generally degraded the environment 

 so that it is unsuitable for most amphipods. The dump sites are a 

 part of this degradation, but a small part compared with the effects 

 of pollution effluents in and emanating from the Hudson-Raritan 

 Estuary. Amphipods, like other crustaceans, are known to be gener- 

 ally intolerant of pollutants (Blumer et al. 1970; Sanders et al. 

 1972), but they are important food items for most demersal finfish 

 and their absence or reduction in numbers may alter normal food 

 webs of several valuable resource species, reducing the potential 

 harvest from the apex. Boesch (1982) has reviewed benthic-finfish 

 trophic couplings in the apex, and also supports the hypothesis that 

 resource potential is impaired. 



The apex, in the past, has been a very productive area for fish- 

 eries, in part because of its uncontaminated shellfish and because it 

 provided a hospitable environment for many species of demersal 

 fish and crustaceans. If dumping in the area is reduced or termi- 

 nated in the future, it will be important to monitor the recovery of 

 the apex ecosystem. 



The amount of time required for the fauna at these dump sites to 

 recoveris unknown at this time. Dean and Haskin (1964) found that 

 the benthic community, particularly the small amphipod crusta- 

 ceans, showed marked recovery after pollution abatement at the 

 mouth of the Raritan River. Dredge spoil recolonization has also 

 been shown to be relatively rapid in Long Island and Rhode Island 

 Sounds (Pratt 1973: Reid and Frame 1977 :3 ). However, little work 

 has been done on sewage sludge dump site recovery. Bioturbation 

 may keep recycling some pollutants for a time before they are 

 finally diluted to nonstressful levels or buried at a depth where they 

 are no longer active. 



In conclusion, our studies show that a heterogeneous benthic 

 fauna exists in the New York Bight apex, which appears to be 

 adversely altered, particularly in the vicinity of two dump sites, but 

 perhaps throughout a major portion of the apex. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



We wish to thank Martha Halsey, Newell Eisele, and all of our 

 work-study aids from Cook, Jersey City State, and Trenton State 

 Colleges for their patient work in sorting and identification of the 

 benthic macrofauna samples upon which much of this atlas is 



23 Reid. R.. and A. Frame. 1977. Sediments and benthic macrofauna of disposal 

 area. Section F. In Physical, chemical and biological effects of dredging in the 

 Thames River (CT) and spoil disposal at the New London (CT) dumping ground, p. 

 1-44. Final report to U.S. Navy and Interagency Scientific Advisory Subcommittee 

 on Ocean Dredging and Spoiling. NOAA, NMFS. Northeast Fisheries Center, 

 Sandy Hook Laboratory, Highlands. N.J. 



based; Leslie Rogers and James Thomas for field collection of 

 macrofauna samples; and Ann Frame for taxonomic advice. We 

 also thank John LeBaron and Suellen Craig for their assistance in 

 data processing, Mabel Trafford for her help with literature 

 searches, Michele Cox for preparing illustrations, and Catherine 

 Noonan. Diane McDonnell, and Maureen Montone for typing vari- 

 ous drafts of the manuscript. Special thanks are given to Donald 

 Boesch, Donald Maurer, J. Kneeland McNulty, John Pearce, 

 Robert Reid. and a journal reviewer for reviewing the manuscript. 



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