76 
Fishery Bulletin 109(1 ) 
juvenile abundance would be reduced. At Little Egg 
Inlet, colder winters have become less frequent since 
the late 1990s (Able and Fahay, 2010), perhaps result- 
ing in the release of early stage flounder from various 
sources of temperature-induced mortality. A similar 
hypothesis was proposed for Atlantic croaker (i.e., Hare 
and Able, 2007). 
An improved understanding of the factors affecting 
the relationship between spawning stock biomass and 
larval supply, and larval supply and recruitment dur- 
ing the juvenile stage is likely to be critical to an im- 
proved management of year-class strength for summer 
flounder and other estuarine-dependent fishes (Myers 
and Barrowman, 1996). From a management stand- 
A Little Egg Inlet, NJ 
Spawning stock biomass 
(metric tons x 10 4 ) 
B Beaufort Inlet, NC 
Recruitment 
(millions) 
point, the continuation of larval collections at time of 
ingress into Little Egg Inlet would provide a fishery 
independent index for tracking spawning stock biomass 
for the stock north of Cape Hatteras, as well as data 
for continuing to explore the links between spawning, 
larval abundance at ingress, juvenile survival, and re- 
cruitment. Additionally, monitoring of larvae at ingress 
at Beaufort Inlet may provide an index of spawning 
stock biomass of the coastal North Carolina or “south- 
ern stock.” The continuation and initiation of similar 
larval fish sampling programs at other estuarine inlets 
should provide an improved measure of stock status 
as well as help disentangle the complex relationships 
between biological and environmental factors affecting 
survival and ultimately recruitment for 
a number of species along the east coast 
of the United States. 
Figure 7 
Partial Paulik diagrams for summer flounder ( Paralichthys dentatus) 
showing the relationships between spawning stock biomass and larval 
abundance at ingress, and between larval abundance at ingress and 
recruitment at (A) Little Egg Inlet, New Jersey, and (B) Beaufort Inlet, 
North Carolina. See Table 1 for correlation statistics. 
Acknowledgments 
Funding for this analysis was provided 
by the Rutgers University Marine Field 
Station, the National Ocean Service 
Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat 
Research and the NMFS Fisheries and 
Environment Program. We acknowledge 
the numerous individuals at the Rutgers 
University Marine Field Station in New 
Jersey and the Center for Coastal Fisher- 
ies and Habitat Research in North Caro- 
lina who have worked hard to keep these 
time series going (in particular, H. Walsh, 
S. Warlen, and D. Hoss). The staff of the 
Zaklad Sortowania i Oznaczania Plank- 
tonu Szczecin Poland processed the Beau- 
fort Inlet samples. We thank M. Terceiro, 
D. Ahrenholz, J. Govoni, and P. Marraro 
for their reviews of an earlier draft. Our 
acknowledgement of individuals or insti- 
tutions does not imply that they agree 
with the content of this manuscript. This 
article is contribution 2010-6 from Rutgers 
University Institute of Marine and Coastal 
Sciences. 
Literature cited 
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Able, K. W., and S. C. Kaiser. 
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