508 
Fishery Bulletin 11 5(4) 
50 -i 
40 - 
30 - 
20 - 
10 - 
0 - 
50 
>» 
O 40 
0 30 
20 
50 -i 
40 - 
30 
20 - 
10 
0 
April 
fl l~Lo 
50 -i 
40 
30 
20 H 
10 
0 - 1 
June 
40 
n-r 
50 
o 
0 30 
3 20 
0 10 
100 150 200 250 
August 
, njjll 
IhlLoa- 
I-1— 
0 50 100 150 200 250 
Black sea bass total length (mm) 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 
0 
October 
50 
40 - 
30 - 
20 - 
10 - 
0 - 
May 
—i— 
150 
July 
iii 
i i i i r 
0 50 100 150 200 
September 
250 
JDHL- 
~r 
0 50 100 150 200 250 
Black sea bass total length (mm) 
~r 
50 
~T 
150 
T 
200 
Black sea bass total length (mm) 
Figure 2 
Total-length-frequency distributions of black sea bass (Centropristis striata ) caught in trawl 
surveys conducted in Maryland coastal bays by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources 
during 1989-2013. 
5). As temperatures began to warm, black sea bass be¬ 
came more abundant in July in the MCBs, especially 
in the northern bays. Toward September and October 
when water temperature began to decrease, black sea 
bass began to concentrate at sites relatively close to 
Ocean City and Chincoteague Inlets (Fig. 5). 
Results from the GLMs for April, June, August, Sep¬ 
tember and October, showed that temperature, salinity, 
dissolved oxygen, and Secchi disk depth were not signifi¬ 
cant predictor variables for catch of black sea bass at 
the 20 sampling sites (P>0.05). In May, salinity was an 
important predictor variable (P=0.01), whereas in July, 
Secchi disk depth was a significant predictor variable 
(P=0.03) for catch of black sea bass. Catch per unit of 
effort of black sea bass was related to average water 
depth (coefficient of determination [r 2 ]=0.21, P=0.025) 
and higher CPUE occurred at deeper (>2 m) sites (Fig. 6). 
Seasonal patterns of abundance of black sea bass and 
temperature 
Black sea bass (age 1) began to enter the MCBs from 
the ocean at an average temperature of 14.21°C in 
April and 19.34°C in May (Fig. 7, A and B) at sizes 
ranging from about 45 to 135 mm TL (Fig. 2). Through¬ 
out the annual sampling period, size of black sea bass 
increased and sizes of fish caught ranged from 45 to 
224 mm TL in September. Starting in June, smaller 
size fish (age 0) were captured in the bays (Figs. 2 and 
7). The abundance of age-0 fish peaked in September, 
whereas the abundance for the age-1 year class peaked 
in July (Fig. 7A) when temperature also peaked at 
27.5°C (Fig. 7B). The CPUE of age-1 black sea bass 
declined from July to October (Fig. 7A) when tempera¬ 
ture also began to decrease (Fig. 7B). 
