146 



William F. Hettler, Jr. 



Fig. 2. Mean water column temperature and salinity at Oregon Inlet (solid line, 

 squares) and Ocracoke Inlet (dashed line, triangles), North Carolina, for each 

 weekly sampling trip during the 1994-95 larval fish immigration period. Solid 

 symbols indicate ebb tide samples; open symbols indicate flood tide samples. 



S 10 



2> 



I 15 



X As, 



'A- A * -A 



01OCT 01NOV 01DEC 01JAN 01FEB 01MAR 01APR 01MAY 



Inside each inlet a single sampling station was established in the center 

 of the main flood-tide channel (Oregon Inlet station: 35E 46.3'N, 75E 33.5'W ; 

 Ocracoke Inlet station: 35E 06.4'N, 75E 59.5'W). The deepest water at each sta- 

 tion was 7 m and the channel width was about 300 m. Inlets were sampled one 

 night each week on adjacent nights (quasi-synoptic). Each night's sampling con- 

 sisted of 12 repetitive tows, about 10 minutes apart, with a 0.8-m 2 , 800 micron- 

 mesh-net on a 1-m-diameter, sled-mounted, aluminum frame towed at a net 

 speed of 1 m/sec . A tow consisted of actively towing the net in the deepest water 

 along the axis of the channel down to the bottom and back to the surface. Tows 

 were always made into the current. A flow-meter measured the volume of water 

 passing through the net. Each tow took 4 minutes, filtering approximately 200 m 3 



