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Fishery Bulletin 106(1 ) 
Figure t 
Station locations for the 1991-95 beam trawl surveys and 2001-06 otter trawl surveys off Little 
Egg Inlet off southern New Jersey. Locations sampled only by beam trawl are denoted by (•), those 
sampled only by otter trawl, by (A), and those sampled with both gears, by (□). The thick black line 
delineates the top contour of Beach Haven Ridge. 
ecosystems, then changes to fish assemblages asso- 
ciated with changes in the structure of sand ridges 
could be excellent indicators of the effects of sand and 
gravel mining or other habitat alterations. Additionally, 
sand ridges may not be the optimal choice for sand 
and gravel mining if it is shown that sand ridges act 
as strategic ecological features (whether in their influ- 
ence on increased fish abundance or species richness) 
or provide essential fish habitat (EFH) for economically 
important species. The purpose of this study was to 
determine how use of habitat by fish varies between 
shoreface sand ridges and the surrounding inner con- 
tinental shelf through an analysis of abundance and 
species assemblage patterns. The specific objectives 
were 1) to ascertain if there is a difference in fish abun- 
dance and species richness between the sand ridge and 
adjacent areas; 2) to determine if there are spatial or 
temporal patterns in species assemblages that are dif- 
ferent between the sand ridge and adjacent areas; and 
3) to describe any relationships between the species as- 
semblages and environmental factors. Collectively, this 
information can provide resource managers a better 
understanding of the potential impacts of the mining 
of sand ridges on fishes. 
Materials and methods 
Study area 
The study area encompassed the inner continental shelf 
waters off southern New Jersey between Barnegat Inlet 
and Brigantine Inlet (Fig. 1). Sampling was conducted 
along a 23-km transect across a shoreface sand ridge, 
Beach Haven Ridge (BHR). Beach Haven Ridge extends 
northeastward from the ebb tidal delta of Little Egg 
Inlet; it has a maximum relief of 8 m between the ridge 
crest and the trough on the seaward side, and the relief 
on the shoreward side is 4-5 m (Stahl et al., 1974). The 
substrate on top of the ridge is composed primarily of 
coarse sand (Craghan, 1995). The seaward side of the 
ridge has two major substrate types: 1) coarse sand 
with shells of the surf clam ( Spisula solidissima) and 2) 
areas with a mixture of semilithified clay and sand. The 
landward side of the ridge is characterized as having two 
major substrate types: 1) areas of sand and clay mixture 
and 2) patches of semilithified clay and sand mixture. 
Mounds composed of tubes of the polychaete worm Asa- 
bellides occulata can also be found landward of the ridge, 
but are temporally variable. Bedforms (ripples) are 
