Dunton et al.: Abundance and distribution of Acipenser oxyrinchus within the Northwest Atlantic Ocean 
457 
76°0 W 72°0'W 
Figure 5 
Number of captures of Atlantic sturgeon ( Acipenser oxyrinchus) from all 
surveys during winter months. Circle size corresponds to total number 
of Atlantic sturgeon captured at a given location (insert A). Locations 
of all tows can be seen in insert B. 
70% of the catches occurring within this region. Twenty- 
six Atlantic sturgeon were captured in the summer 
months; 99% were captured in western-central Long 
Island, NY, and only one was captured along the east 
end of Long Island. During the winter, all Atlantic stur- 
geon were captured off the western end of Long Island. 
Habitat preferences 
Hydrographic variables and distributions of Atlantic 
sturgeon were compared only for the NMFS bottom 
trawl survey, NJDEP finfish survey, and for NYBTS 
for the spring and fall seasons because these contained 
sufficient Atlantic sturgeon capture data to perform 
the analyses. The depths (habitat) occupied by Atlantic 
sturgeon was significantly different from the available 
depths in the NMFS survey and NYBTS for both the 
spring and fall surveys and the NJDEP spring survey 
(Tables 3 and 4). Atlantic sturgeon occupied areas 
with significantly different temperatures compared to 
available habitat in the NYBTS spring and NMFS fall 
survey, as well as areas of significantly different salini- 
ties in the NMFS fall and spring surveys and NJDEP 
spring survey (Table 3). Survey-specific cumulative 
distribution functions for available and occupied habits 
Table 3 
P-values from the analysis of habitat preference of Atlan- 
tic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus ) by season in the 
northwestern Atlantic Ocean. The fish were captured in 
the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) bottom 
trawl survey, New Jersey Department of Environmental 
Protection (NJDEP) finfish survey, and New York bottom 
trawl survey (NYBTS). Bold font indicates a significant 
difference (P<0.01) between Atlantic sturgeon habitat 
preference and the available habitat. 
Season 
Survey 
Depth 
Temperature 
Salinity 
fall 
NMFS 
<0.005 
<0.005 
<0.005 
fall 
NJDEP 
0.129 
0.173 
0.273 
fall 
NYBTS 
<0.005 
0.518 
0.530 
spring 
NMFS 
<0.005 
0.355 
0.001 
spring 
NJDEP 
<0.005 
0.173 
<0.005 
spring 
NYBTS 
<0.005 
0.001 
0.084 
with depth, salinity, and temperature profiles are shown 
in Figure 10 and median values and 95% confidence 
intervals are listed in Table 4. Where significant differ- 
