Turnure et a!.: Patterns of intra-estuarine movement in adult Cynoscion regalis 
177 
ALR from relatively large distances (~6 km) within a 
season was evident in several individuals in this study. 
With the high level of individual variation present in 
this study and the potential effects of intrinsic (e.g., 
size and sex) and extrinsic (e.g., time and location of 
tagging and environmental quality) variables on the 
observed patterns of movement, these results also indi- 
cate that a prior understanding of scale (both temporal 
and spatial) is necessary to formulate proper research 
questions about weakfish movements and likely about 
other estuarine species. 
Inherent variability in behavior of individuals, as 
seen in this and in previous studies (see Bolnick et ah, 
2003, and citations within; Kohler et ah, 2009), should 
not be overlooked when interpreting these patterns 
(Mittelbach, 2014). Explicit examination of the mecha- 
nisms that surround these temporal dynamics would 
provide insight into weakfish movements in relation to 
critical aspects of their life history (e.g., reproduction) 
at scales beyond the individual and could be used to 
scale the protection of spawning habitat and to gain 
insight into population-level dynamics. For example, 
current understanding of weakfish population genetics 
indicates that the western Atlantic weakfish popula- 
tion should be managed as one coastal stock despite 
the existence of geographically distinct subpopulations 
(Cordes and Graves, 2003). Our study, described here, 
further confounds the notion that weakfish maintain 
population connectivity through highly dispersive 
movements during the reproductive period. Behavioral 
differences among and within weakfish subpopulations, 
especially with regard to the phenology and location 
of spawning, may contribute to the genetic similarity 
within the coastal weakfish population. 
Acknowledgments 
We thank technicians (T. Malatesta, S. Ordog, J. Racko- 
van, J. Caridad, and R. Hagan), Jacques Cousteau 
National Estuarine Research Reserve volunteers (R. 
Zaengle and K. Mancini), and National Science Foun- 
dation Research Experience Undergraduates program 
interns (B. Reckenbeil and A. Pogue). S. Powell contrib- 
uted fish for tagging. The Estuarine Reserves Division 
of the NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource 
Management, now part of the Stewardship Division of 
the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, funded this 
study along with the Institute of Marine and Coastal 
Sciences of Rutgers University and the Manasquan 
River Marlin and Tuna Club. This article is no. 2015-2 
of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. 
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