391 
NOAA 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
Abstract— Abundances of Gulf men- 
haden ( Breuoortia patronus) in the 
northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) are 
heavily influenced by physical and 
biological processes that affect ref- 
uge and food availability. This study 
identified specific decadal and in- 
terannual responses in the recruit- 
ment of Gulf menhaden to local me- 
teorological and hydrological regimes 
imposed by the coupling of Atlantic 
Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and 
North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) 
phases and by El Nino Southern Os- 
cillation (ENSO) events. Numbers 
of age-0 menhaden in fishery-inde- 
pendent surveys and numbers and 
proportions of Gulf menhaden ages 
1-6 in commercial purse-seine land- 
ings in the northern GOM were used 
to investigate those responses. High 
postlarval abundance of Gulf men- 
haden (3.6/beam plankton haul) in 
the central region was related to the 
decadal wet regime associated with 
AMO cold and NAO positive phases. 
Elevated numbers of menhaden spe- 
cies (38.3/seine haul) in the western 
region were related to interannual 
wet regimes associated with ENSO 
warm and neutral events. High com- 
mercial landings of Gulf menhaden 
(10 million fish/vessel ton week) 
were related to the decadal average 
hydrological regime associated with 
AMO cold and NAO negative phases. 
Climate regimes may favor growth 
and survival by structuring offshore 
and inshore nursery habitats or by 
synchronizing release of larvae when 
offshore and inshore nursery condi- 
tions are favorable. 
Manuscript submitted: 13 September 2013. 
Manuscript accepted: 16 July 2015. 
Fish. Bull. 113:391-406 (2015). 
Online publication date: 14 August 2015. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.113.4.3 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Fishery Bulletin 
& established 1881 •<?> 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Climate-related meteorological and hydrological 
regimes and their influence on recruitment 
of Gulf menhaden C Brevoortia patronus ) in 
the northern Gulf of Mexico 
Guillermo Sanchez-Rubio (contact author) 
Harriet Perry 
Email address for contact author: guillermo.sanchez@usm.edu 
Gulf Coast Research Laboratory 
Center for Fisheries Research and Development 
University of Southern Mississippi 
703 East Beach Drive 
Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39564 
Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus) 
spawn in offshore marine waters and 
juvenile development occurs in near- 
shore nursery areas. Spawning oc- 
curs in the late fall and winter, peak- 
ing between December and February 
(Gunter, 1945; Guillory and Roussel, 
1981; Shaw et al., 1985; Christmas 
et al. 1 ). On the basis of the distribu- 
tion of eggs, Fore (1970) noted that 
spawning occurred mainly over the 
continental shelf in the northcentral 
Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and that the 
greatest concentrations were found 
in waters between 8 and 70 m off 
Texas and Louisiana and near the 
Mississippi River Delta. Christmas 
and Waller (1973) and Sogard et al. 
(1987) also found high densities of 
larvae near the Mississippi River. 
Late-stage larvae recruit to estuar- 
ies during the winter and spring, 
and there they transform into juve- 
niles and remain for several months 
before moving back to open Gulf wa- 
ters (Suttkus, 1956; Christmas and 
1 Christmas, J. Y., D. J. Etzold, L. B. Simp- 
son, and S. Meyers (eds.). 1988. The 
menhaden fishery of the Gulf of Mexico 
United States: a regional management 
plan. Gulf States Mar. Fish. Comm. 18, 
134 p. [Available at website.] 
Waller, 1973) in the summer and fall 
(Suttkus, 1956). After metamorphosis 
of larvae into juveniles, Gulf menha- 
den change their feeding habits from 
a carnivorous diet to an omnivorous 
filter-feeding diet. 
The capacity of estuaries to sup- 
port growth and development was 
considered by Reintjes (1970) to be 
critical to survival of young Gulf 
menhaden. A host of studies have ex- 
amined the effects of meteorological 
and hydrological variables on recruit- 
ment success (numbers of juvenile 
fish moving into the estuary) and 
most have focused on annual fluctua- 
tions. More recent data indicate that 
global climate factors associated with 
decadal and multidecadal oscillations 
in the Pacific and Atlantic influence 
population abundances of estuarine 
species in addition to the annual and 
interannual factors noted in earlier 
studies. 
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation 
(PDO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscil- 
lation (AMO), North Atlantic Oscil- 
lation (NAO), and El Nino Southern 
Oscillation (ENSO) are associated 
with river flows across the continen- 
tal United States (Tootle et al., 2005; 
Tootle and Piechota, 2006). The com- 
bination of PDO, AMO, and NAO and 
