Peters and Chigbu: Abundance of juvenile Centropristis striata in Maryland coastal bays 
505 
estuary-specific studies to be conducted to provide effec¬ 
tive information for management of this species. 
Young-of-the-year and age-l+ black sea bass are cap¬ 
tured in estuarine habitats during the warmer months 
of the year when the northern stock occupies inshore 
areas of the continental shelf. Studies of juvenile black 
sea bass have been conducted in a few estuaries in 
their northern range, especially with regard to their 
distribution, abundance, growth, habitat fidelity, and 
feeding habits (Richards, 1963; Kimmel, 1973; Allen et 
al., 1978; Festa 2 ; Heck and Orth, 1980; Werme, 1981). 
The species has been reported (see Steimle et al., 1999) 
in various estuaries in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, such as 
southern Chincoteague Bay, Virginia (Schwartz, 1961), 
Magothy Bay, Virginia (Kimmel, 1973), central Long 
Island Sound (Richards, 1963), Raritan and Sandy 
Hook Bays (Wilk et al. 3 ) and Barnegat Bay, New Jersey 
(Tatham et al., 1984). The preferred estuarine nurs¬ 
ery habitats are shallow areas with structure that can 
serve as a refuge from predators (Steimle et al., 1999). 
While in estuaries they exhibit site fidelity (Able and 
Hales, 1997) and can be found around bridge pilings, 
rock jetties, artificial reefs, and oyster reefs along with 
seagrass beds (Steimle et al., 1999). During this time, 
black sea bass grow rapidly at a rate of 0.74 mm TL/ 
day during the summer (Able and Hales, 1997). Little 
growth occurs during their overwintering time offshore, 
and 95% of black sea bass are mature at around 28 cm 
TL (length at 50% maturity occurring at 20.4 cm [Shep¬ 
herd and Nieland 4 ]). Because of the possibility of size 
selective overwinter mortality, the time black sea bass 
spend in estuaries is vital to their growth, survival, 
and subsequent recruitment to the adult population. 
Information on the ecology of black sea bass in 
Maryland coastal bays (MCBs), the series of 5 bays lo¬ 
cated on the eastern shore of Maryland, is scarce. Such 
information is needed to assess the extent to which the 
MCBs serve as nursery habitats for black sea bass and 
contribute to the adult population in the coastal ocean. 
In 2013 Maryland accounted for 11% of the 984.30 met¬ 
ric tons (2.17 million lb) commercial catch quota and 
19.14 of the 598.74 metric tons (or 42,200 lb of the 1.32 
million lb) of total allowable landings for recreation¬ 
al harvest (Butowski et al. 5 ), hence estuaries in the 
2 Festa, P. J. 1979. Analysis of the fish forage base in the 
Little Egg Harbor Estuary. New Jersey Department of En¬ 
vironmental Protection, Division of Fish Game and Shellfish, 
Bureau of Fisheries, Nacote Creek Station, Tech. Rep. 24M, 
134 p. [Available from website.] 
3 Wilk, S. J„ E. M. MacHaffie, D. G. McMillan, A. J. Pacheco, 
R. A. Pikanowski, and L. L. Stehlik. 1996. Fish, megain¬ 
vertebrates, and associated hydrographic observations col¬ 
lected in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, January 1992-De- 
cember 1993. Northeast Fish. Sci. Cent. Ref. Doc. 96-14, 95 
p. [Available from website.] 
4 Shepherd, G. R., and J. Nieland. 2010. Black sea bass 
2010 stock assessment update. Northeast Fish. Sci. Cent. 
Ref. Doc. 10-13, 25 p. [Available from website.] 
5 Butowski, N., R. Morin, and M. Topolski. 2013. 2012 Fish¬ 
ery management plan: report to the legislative committees, 
185 p. Maryland Dep. Nat. Resour., Fish. Serv., Annapolis, 
MD. [Available from website.] 
Maryland area including the MCBs may be important 
nursery grounds for black sea bass. 
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources 
conducts the Coastal Bays Fisheries Investigations 
Trawl and Beach Seine Survey in the MCBs to assess 
trends in juvenile fish abundance (Butowski et al. 4 ). 
This survey takes place monthly from April to October 
each year at 20 fixed sites, and was standardized in 
1989 (Pincin et al., 2014). The data from these sur¬ 
veys have been used to examine trends in abundance 
and distribution of juveniles for some finfish and crab 
species (Murphy and Secor, 2006; Love et al., 2009; 
O’Brien, 2013; Pincin et ah, 2014; Malagon, 2015) but 
not for the black sea bass. A recent study showed that 
the indices of abundance of juvenile black sea bass de¬ 
termined from the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science 
Center trawl surveys in the mid-Atlantic were highly 
correlated with indices of abundance from independent 
surveys conducted by a number of state agencies (Mill¬ 
er et ah, 2016). This finding suggests that data from 
trawl surveys may be useful for describing seasonal, 
as well as interannual, variations in the abundance of 
black sea bass in estuaries such as those in the MCBs. 
The objectives for this study were 1) to describe spa¬ 
tial and seasonal changes in the abundance and size 
composition of black sea bass, and assess the role of 
environmental factors in the spatial distribution pat¬ 
tern, and 2) to evaluate the influence of environmen¬ 
tal (temperature and salinity) factors and major cli¬ 
matic phenomena, such as the North Atlantic Oscilla¬ 
tion (NAO) and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) 
events, and the influence of spawning stock biomass of 
black sea bass on the recruitment dynamics of juvenile 
black sea bass. Previous studies have shown that the 
NAO affects other species in the northwest Atlantic. 
For example, abundance of the northern shortfin squid 
(Illex illecebrosus ) was found to be higher in years with 
a negative NAO index, which provides weak winter 
northwesterly winds (Dawe et al., 2000). Other similar 
studies, found that NAO affected the recruitment of At¬ 
lantic cod (Gadus morhua ) in European waters, espe¬ 
cially when spawning stock biomass was low (Brander, 
2005), and contributed to the decline of the northern 
stock of Atlantic cod off of Canada (Mann and Drink- 
water, 1994; Parsons and Lear, 2001). Understand¬ 
ing the role that climatic factors have in recruitment 
into nursery areas for economically valuable species 
is important for the future management of the stocks, 
particularly as management moves toward ecosystem- 
based management. 
Materials and methods 
Study location 
The MCBs located on the eastern shore of Maryland and 
separated from the Atlantic Ocean by 2 barrier Islands 
(Pincin et al., 2014) are composed of 5 bays: Assawoman, 
Isle of Wight, Sinepuxent, Newport, and Chincoteague 
