Marine and Freshwater Fishes of the Cape Fear 



Estuary, North Carolina, and Their Distribution in 



Relation to Environmental Factors 



Frank J. Schwartz 



Institute of Marine Sciences, 



University of North Carolina, 



Morehead City, North Carolina 28557 



William T. Hogarth 



Carolina Power and Light Company, 

 New Hill, North Carolina 27562 



AND 



Michael P. Weinstein 



Department of Biology, 

 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284 



ABSTRACT.— A survey of the saline lower Cape Fear River 

 watershed, conducted from 1973 through 1980, yielded 12,612,022 

 fishes of 249 species in 85 families. This list is supplemented by an 

 additional three families and seven species reported in the literature. A 

 mixture of Virginian, Carolinian, Caribbean, resident, transient, and 

 estuarine-dependent fishes seasonally occupied the study area, which 

 included parts of the Northeast Cape Fear River, the Cape Fear River 

 downstream of Lock 1, and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean off Baldhead 

 and Oak islands. Collections were made with beach seine, rotenone, 

 gill net, plankton net, otter trawl, and traveling screens of a nuclear 

 steam electric power plant located 2.4 km upstream of Southport, 

 North Carolina. Fish presence and abundance were recorded and 

 related to water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity. Resident 

 or seasonal status of each species was also related to spatial habitat 

 distribution, substrate preference, freshwater and marine intrusion, or 

 geographic province origin. The river serves as a nursery area for many 

 estuarine-dependent fishes. Although industrial and domestic pollution 

 enter the river, primarily at Wilmington, North Carolina, they have 

 not as yet seriously affected its vitality for fish survival. 



INTRODUCTION 



Early ichthyological studies by Lawson (1714), Catesby (1771), and 

 Smith (1907) largely ignored the marine fish fauna of the lower Cape 

 Fear River, North Carolina. By contrast, the freshwater fishes of the 

 system have been well documented by Fowler (1945) and Menhinick et 

 al. (1974). Brimley (1935) and Gudger (1948) reported strandings and 



Brimleyana No. 7:17-37. July 1981. 17 



