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Fishery Bulletin 1 12(2-3) 
E 
E 
O) 
c 
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o 
E 
E 
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A 
600 
550 
500 
450 
400 
350 
B 
500 
450 
400 
350 
300 
250 
15 20 25 30 
Temperature (°C) 
Figure 4 
Deviance plots from logistic generalized additive mixed models showing partial effects of 
temperature and body size on the residence of (A) Striped Bass ( Mo rone saxatilis) and (B) 
Weakfish ( Cynoscion regalis), a Bluefish ( Pomatomus saltatrix) with total lengths (C) <300 
mm, (Di of 300-500 mm, and (E) >500 mm, all tagged in the Navesink River in 2006 and 
2007 (see Table 3). The relationship of residence to temperature and body size was continu- 
ous for Striped Bass and Weakfish which were more likely to be resident over a broader 
temperature range at smaller body sizes than they were at larger body sizes. Vertical lines 
crossing the horizontal line at 0.0 indicate boundaries between positive and negative ef- 
fects, and shaded areas represent ±2 standard-error confidence bands. 
The fish that were released later in the season typically 
were small and generally had longer residencies. 
Discussion 
Our observations of estuarine residency for individu- 
al Striped Bass, Bluefish, and Weakfish indicate that 
small (-1000 ha), mid-Atlantic estuarine tributaries, 
such as the Navesink River, contain habitat resources 
necessary to support survival and adequate growth of 
age-0 and age-1 individuals for relatively long peri- 
ods of time during the summer months. Of the age-l+ 
Striped Bass that we tagged, 25% used the river for 
more than 26 d, and the same fractions of the Bluefish 
(age 1 and 0) and age-l+ Weakfish that we tagged used 
the system for more than 36 and 62 d. Earlier inves- 
tigations that used fortnightly gillnet surveys of the 
Navesink River and adjacent Sandy Hook Bay indicat- 
ed that these 3 predators are abundant in the system, 
which they use as a feeding habitat, nursery habitat, or 
both (Scharf et ah, 2004; Manderson et. al., 2006). Our 
