Anchoa mitchilli, Bay anchovy. — Anchoa mitchilli were 

 collected at all stations in the Cooper River-Charleston Harbor 

 system, except for the most limnetic station (C001) (Fig. 3B). 

 Bay anchovy were most abundant at station J001. Monthly 

 fluctuations in abundance indicated that little, if any, sea- 

 sonality was associated with catches of bay anchovy, but 

 catches did undergo annual fluctuations, being highest during 

 1974-76 (Fig. 4B). 



Micropogonias undulatus, Atlantic croaker. — Atlantic 

 croaker were collected at all stations in the Cooper River- 

 Charleston Harbor system, but abundances were greatest 

 from April through July at higher salinity stations, particularly 

 those located near the mouth (J001, J003) (Fig. 3C). Annual 

 variation in catches of croaker was small, with little fluctua- 

 tion about the grand mean (Fig. 4C). Length- frequency dis- 

 tributions indicated that most estuarine croaker available to 

 our trawls were <120 mm TL throughout the year. Al- 

 though these smaller fish predominated in spring and summer 

 catches, they were also present during other seasons, but in 

 fewer numbers. Newly recruited fish ( < 30 mm TL) generally 

 appeared first in fall and continued to appear in the popula- 

 tion during winter and spring. The continued presence of small 

 croaker during spring in South Carolina may reflect the slow 

 growth of fish spawned in late winter or early spring (Chao 

 and Musick 1977). By summer, few croaker <45 mm were 

 collected from the Cooper River-Charleston Harbor system, 

 and modal groups were in the 75-90 mm range. Although 

 1-yr-old fish (108-285 mm, from Chao and Musick 1977) 

 were infrequently caught, probably due to gear avoidance 

 (Wenner et al. 1982), their numbers were fewer in summer. 

 Migration of yearling croaker from the estuarine environment 

 during summer has been reported in the York River, Virginia 

 (Chao and Musick 1977), and late summer and early fall in 

 South Carolina (Bearden 1964) and Florida (Hansen 1969). 



Brevoortia tyrannus, Atlantic menhaden.— Atlantic 

 menhaden were collected at every station except for C001, the 

 station farthest upriver (Fig. 3D). Menhaden displayed little 

 change in abundance by month but were most consistently pre- 

 sent in November, December, January, and June. Annual 

 catches fluctuated moderately about the grand mean and were 

 greatest in 1977 (Fig. 4D). 



Leiostomus xanthurus, Spot. — Spot exhibited a distribu- 

 tional pattern similar to that of Atlantic croaker, being most 

 abundant at stations J001 and J003 near the mouth. Spot 

 also were most abundant during May- July (Fig. 3E). Annual 

 catches of spot steadily increased over the 5-yr sampling period 

 (Fig. 4E). The average size of spot was greatest in fall and 

 winter. Length-frequency distributions indicated that spring 

 and summer catches of spot were dominated by fishes in the 

 60-80 mm size range. Our data support results of other studies 

 in South Carolina (Dawson 1958; Shealy et al. 1974), North 

 Carolina (Hildebrand and Cable 1930), and the lower Chesa- 

 peake Bay (Hildebrand and Schroeder 1928; Chao and Musick 

 1977), which found that young-of-the-year spot first entered 

 the estuary in April. 



Symphurus plagiusa, Blackcheek tonguefish. — Symphurus 

 plagiusa were most abundant in higher salinity areas of the 

 Cooper River-Charleston Harbor system, although the species 

 did penetrate into limnetic-mesohaline areas of the estuaries at 

 station C003 (Fig. 3F). Over the 5-yr sampling period, abun- 

 dance of S. plagiusa was greatest in October and November; 

 however, annual catches showed a consistent increase from 1973 

 to 1976 with a slight decrease in 1977 (Fig. 4F). 



Bairdiella chrysoura, Silver perch. — Silver perch were col- 

 lected at all stations except C001; and their abundance in- 

 creased at stations downriver, especially at C004 and J001 



LLi 



U 

 H 

 < 

 Q 

 Z 

 3 

 CD 

 < 



O 



A Stellifer lonceoiatus 

 l.2-i 



I.O- 



.80- t ' 



-60- _ ~/~ G_u 



.40- 



20- 



8. Anchoa mitchilli 



C. Micropogonias 

 undulatus 



F. Symphurus plagiusa 

 1.2-1 



G. Bairdiella chrysoura 



GRAND MEAN 



H. Cynoscion regalis 



— i — i — i — i — i — 



73 74 75 76 77 



73 74 75 76 77 



YEAR 



D. Brevoortia tyrannus 

 1.2- 



10- 



80- 



.60- 



40- — 



.20- 



£. Leiostomus xanthurus 



I. Urophycis regia 



I.2-, 



J. Trinectes maculatus 



1.0 

 .80 

 .60- 



.40- 

 .20 



73 74 75 76 77 



73 74 75 76 77 



Figure 4.— Annual variation in the transformed [log,. ix + 1)] mean number of individuals of 10 major fish species collected in the Cooper River-Charleston Harbor estuarine 



system, 1973-77. 



11 



