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Fishery Bulletin 1 10(2) 
Figure 8 
Daily mean (A) temperature (°C) and (B) salinity (ppt) profiles 
from the Mullica River-Great Bay as collected by the Jacques 
Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve System-Wide 
Monitoring Program’s Buoy 126 near Little Egg Inlet (dashed 
line) and Lower Bank (dark continuous line) water quality data 
loggers from 2006 through 2008 (see Fig. 1 for locations). Filled 
black circles represent the temperature and salinity values at 
locations where ultrasonically tagged small (32.4-42.5 cm total 
length) striped bass (Morone saxatilis) were detected during 
mobile telemetry tracking efforts during the same time period. 
(Table 1), in part, because these small individuals 
remain in shallow coastal waters where they are not 
available to these surveys (Figs. 2 and 3). However, 
a few of this size have been detected along the shal- 
lowest depth strata along the coast of New Jersey in 
NJDEP otter trawl and RUMFS ocean beach surveys 
(Figs. 2, 4, and 5). At these sizes they can be detected 
in the winter and spring as they move out of the es- 
tuaries. Further support for these movements occurs 
in the tag-recapture observations of small striped bass 
that are captured in potential natal estuaries and 
disperse to other areas along the New Jersey coast 
(Fig. 6). Thus, dispersal of young-of-the-year and other 
small juveniles from natal estuaries such as the Hud- 
son River estuary, Delaware Bay, and even the Chesa- 
peake Bay (possibly through the C and D Canal; Fig. 
1) could account for the smaller individuals (< 20 cm) 
that occur in the non-natal Mullica River-Great Bay 
estuary (Fig. 2) because of the absence of successful 
spawning there (Able and Grothues, 2007; Grothues 
et ah, 2009). 
The motivation for leaving the natal estuary and the 
primary nursery, regardless of whether they are partial 
migrants or entrained (Secor and Kerr, 2009), has been 
attributed to age (Kohlenstein, 1981), exploration due 
to density dependence (Secor and Kerr, 2009), and sex 
specific variation (i.e., females tend to leave and males 
tend to stay) (Kohlenstein, 1981). What is not clear is 
what motivates small striped bass to enter and become 
resident in non-natal estuaries, although optimal re- 
