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Fishery Bulletin 108(4) 
76°0'W 
72°0'W 
42°0'N 
38°0'N - 
-42°0'N 
- 38°0'N 
76°0'W 
72°0'W 
Figure 6 
Number of captures of Atlantic sturgeon ( Acipenser oxyrinchus) from all 
surveys during fall 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. 
ences in depth occurred, Atlantic sturgeon were always 
found in shallower water than in potentially available 
habitat (Table 4, Fig. 10). Salinities of occupied areas 
were less than those of available habitat in all surveys, 
although only the NMFS fall and spring survey and 
NJDEP spring survey had significant differences (Table 
4, Fig. 10). In two circumstances the temperature of 
occupied habitat was significantly warmer than that 
of available habitat, whereas temperature for the other 
seasons and surveys showed no trend (Table 4, Fig. 10). 
Discussion 
A majority of the Atlantic sturgeon captured along the 
continental shelf from ME to NC were juveniles aggre- 
gating in specific locations around the mouths of estua- 
rine complexes and along narrow dispersal corridors in 
shallow water (<20 m) from Cape Hatteras (NC) to the 
southern tip of Long Island (NY). The highest catches 
occurred within the NY Bight in water 10-15 m deep, 
particularly during the spring and fall. Few sturgeon 
were captured north of MA. Little work has been done 
to describe the marine habitat distribution and habi- 
tat preference of Atlantic sturgeon, but similar coast- 
wide, shallow (with respect to regional bathymetry) 
marine distributions have been shown for green stur- 
geon ( Acipenser medirostris) (Erickson and Hightower, 
2007) and Gulf sturgeon ( Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi) 
(Edwards et al., 2007; Ross et al., 2009). The shallow, 
coast-wide habitat identified within this study is also 
consistent with Atlantic sturgeon bycatch data (Stein 
et al., 2004a, 2004b). Our comprehensive analysis of 
a coast-wide collection of surveys revealed the area 
between the NY Bight to VA as a region of overwinter- 
ing habitat for juvenile Atlantic sturgeon. This finding 
agrees with that of Laney et al. (2007), who found the 
coastal waters off NC and VA to be important overwin- 
tering habitat for Atlantic sturgeon. Atlantic sturgeon 
that originated from the Hudson River represented 
43.5% of those in the NC overwintering habitat (Laney 
et al., 2007) a percentage that agrees with Dovel and 
Berggren’s (1983) tagging data that revealed a south- 
erly movement of Atlantic sturgeon from the Hudson 
River. In addition to Laney et al. (2007), there have 
been further reports of Atlantic sturgeon in marine 
waters off the coast of South Carolina during winter 
months (Collins and Smith, 1997). The identification of 
the NY Bight as an important overwintering area has 
not been widely reported; therefore determining the 
