18 Frank J. Schwartz, William T. Hogarth, Michael P. Weinstein 



occurrences of the whale shark. Rhincodon typhus, and the basking 

 shark, Cetorhinus maximus, respectively, from the river near its mouth. 

 Attempts to survey the estuarine tributaries to the lower river were 

 made by Bayless (1963) and Louder (1963). Lawler (1975) sampled the 

 river to near Campbell Island (Buoy 42) and others have reported spo- 

 radic occurrences of marine or freshwater fishes within the estuary 

 (Lindquist et al. 1977; Lindquist et al. 1978; Martin and Shipp 1971; 

 Tucker and Hodson 1976; Wade 1962). Myers (1925) described the 

 freshwater minnow Notropis cummingsae from the Cape Fear River at 

 Wilmington. Commercially important species, such as the shads, were 

 studied by Davis and Cheek (1967), Nichols and Louder (1970), and 

 Walburg and Nichols (1967), usually in relation to Lock 1 on the main 

 Cape Fear River northwest of Wilmington. Huish and Benedict (1977) 

 tracked the movements of several sonic tagged dusky sharks, Carchar- 

 hinus obscurus, near Buoy 19 in the lower river. Jenkins (1970) cor- 

 rected the systematics and occurrences of suckers reported by Bayless 

 (1963) for the lower river. Copeland and Birkhead (1973) and Birkhead 

 et al. (1977, 1979) focused their studies primarily in the Dutchman 

 Creek area west of Southport, North Carolina. 



Environmental impact studies associated with the operation of a 

 nuclear steam electric power plant on the Cape Fear River near South- 

 port permitted the first extensive survey of the marine and freshwater 

 fish fauna of the saline portions of the Cape Fear watershed. The sur- 

 vey was conducted between 1973 and 1980. Some results were docu- 

 mented by Schwartz and Dahlberg (1978), Schwartz et al. (1979, 1979), 

 Sulak et al. (1979), and Weinstein et al. (1980, 1980). Additional results 

 are reported here. Fish presence and abundance were related to water 

 temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity (see Schwartz et al. 1979, 

 1979). Additional data on tidal movements, periodicity, and flow 

 strength, which would be experienced by fishes once they are in or near 

 the system, were documented by Carpenter and Yonts (1979), Schwartz 

 and Chestnut (1973), and Welch and Parker (1979). We review and cor- 

 rect information on occurrences of several fishes in the system (Table 1). 



STUDY AREA 



The Cape Fear River lies entirely within North Carolina and is the 

 largest Atlantic river drainage system in the state. It is about 528 km 

 long with a drainage basin of about 14,553 km 2 . The estuarine portion 

 accounts for 880 km 2 of the system. Spring runoff varies from lows of 

 0.5 to highs of 3.1 m/sec (Schwartz and Dahlberg 1978; Schwartz et al. 

 1979, 1979) and is often influenced by tropical hurricanes, inland 

 storms, rain, and snow melt from inland rivers. All or most of the estu- 

 ary is subject to tidal excursions of ±2 m, as a result of strong tides and 



