212 
Fishery Bulletin 111(3) 
Dover Sole 
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Time series of annual catch anomalies for small (solid circles) and large (open circles) 
size classes for 7 species or species groups of flatfishes collected during bottom trawl 
surveys conducted during 1991-2012 in Port Madison, Puget Sound, Washington. Small 
and large-size individuals were categorized as those fishes in the 33 rd percentile or 
lower and those fishes in the 67 th percentile or higher, respectively, on the basis of the 
length-frequency distribution of each species or species group. 
surveys that cover a wider area and that generally in- 
dicate greater groundfish densities through the 1990s. 7 
Third, decreases in catch rates could be explained by 
changes in predator abundance in this region that may 
7 Palsson, W. 2010. Personal commun. NOAA Fisheries, 
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA. 98115. 
impose increased mortality or result in distributional 
shifts of prey species (Heithaus et al., 2008). Demersal 
fish species in Puget Sound are consumed by elasmo- 
branchs, such as Spiny Dogfish ( Squalus acanthias ) 
and Bluntnose Sixgill Shark (Hexanchus griseus), and 
marine mammals, such as the harbor seal (Phoca vitu- 
lina\ Bromaghin et al., 2013; Howard et al., 2013) and 
