54 
Fishery Bulletin 106(1 ) 
Figure 6 (continued) 
dant in the diet. The relative importance of specific 
fish species in the diet of summer flounder has varied 
across studies, likely because of spatial variations in 
prey assemblages and perhaps because of differences in 
study methods. Nevertheless, these studies in combina- 
tion with the results of the present study indicate that 
summer flounder are piscivorous within estuarine en- 
vironments throughout their range. Additionally, there 
appears to be appreciable similarity in the invertebrate 
taxa consumed by summer flounder in estuaries because 
sand and mysid shrimps have been found in the diet in 
multiple areas across decades (Poole, 1964; Powell and 
Schwartz, 1979). 
Striped bass, weakfish, and bluefish represent the 
abundant upper trophic level teleost piscivorous preda- 
tors in Chesapeake Bay (Dovel, 1968; Boynton et ah, 
