504 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service Fishery Bulletin 
NGAA ^ established in 1881 •<?. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Spatial and temporal patterns of abundance of 
juvenile black sea bass (Centmpristis striata) in 
Maryland coastal bays 
Email address for contact author: pchigbu@umes.edu 
Abstract —’Black sea bass ( Centro■ 
pristis striata) is a warm temper¬ 
ate species that is associated with 
structured habitats along the U.S. 
Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico. 
The northern stock is considered 
data poor, and the lack of informa¬ 
tion on the life history, especially 
at the juvenile stage, is a concern. 
We analyzed trawl survey data col¬ 
lected during 1989-2013 from the 
Maryland coastal bays (MCBs) by 
the Maryland Department of Natu¬ 
ral Resources, and used catch-per- 
unit-of-effort (CPUE) to determine 
spatial and temporal patterns in 
abundance of black sea bass. The 
highest CPUE occurred at sites 
close to the MCBs inlets, suggesting 
the presence of suitable habitats for 
this species in these areas. Spatial 
patterns of abundance of black sea 
bass showed no consistent relation¬ 
ship with temperature, salinity, 
dissolved oxygen, and Secchi disk 
depth, a measure of water transpar¬ 
ency (P>0.05), but CPUE was posi¬ 
tively correlated with water depth 
(P=0.Q25). Average growth rate of 
the fish was 0.58 mm total length 
(TL)/day, ranging from 0.46 to 0.72 
mm TL/day. Results of a generalized 
linear model with a Poisson distribu¬ 
tion indicated that salinity and the 
North Atlantic Oscillation index best 
predicted interannual variation in 
CPUE of age-0 fish, but not CPUE 
of age-1 black sea bass. Informa¬ 
tion from this study can be used to 
form a basis for future studies in the 
coastal bays of Maryland and other 
coastal lagoon systems. 
Manuscript submitted 14 December 2016. 
Manuscript accepted 14 August 2017. 
Fish. Bull. 115:504-516 (2017). 
Online publication date: 29 August 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB. 115.4.7 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Rebecca Peters 
Paulino*. Chigbu (contact author) 
Department of Natural Science 
University of Maryland Eastern Shore 
#1 Backbone Road 
Princess Anne, Maryland 21853 
Estuaries on the Atlantic and Gulf 
coasts of the United States serve as 
nursery areas for many commercially 
and recreationally harvested fish spe¬ 
cies. However, some smaller estuaries 
throughout this region are relatively 
understudied, resulting in a limited 
understanding of how important 
they are as habitats for some marine 
fish species. This lack of information 
causes difficulties for the protection of 
nursery areas of a particular species 
(Beck et a!., 2001). One such species 
is the black sea bass (Centropristis 
striata), which is currently considered 
data poor owing in part to its protogy- 
nous hermaphroditic nature (Able et 
ah, 1995; Shepherd 1 ). 
The black sea bass is a temperate 
fish species that occupies an extensive 
range from the Gulf of Maine to the 
Gulf of Mexico (Steimle et al., 1999). 
It is commercially and recreation- 
ally harvested throughout its range, 
requiring management by state and 
federal fishery management agen¬ 
cies. Because of the large extent of its 
1 Shepherd, G. R. 2009. Black sea bass. 
In The Northeast Data Poor Stocks Work¬ 
ing Group report, December 8-12, 2008 
Meeting. Part A. Skate species complex, 
deep sea red crab, Atlantic wolffish, 
scup, and black sea bass. Northeast 
Fish. Sci. Cent. Ref. Doc. 09-02A&B, p. 
423-463. [Available from website.] 
range, the black sea bass is managed 
as 3 stocks: the northern, southern, 
and Gulf of Mexico stocks, which have 
differences in migratory behavior and 
genetic makeup (Steimle et a!., 1999). 
The northern stock, from the Gulf of 
Maine to north of Cape Hatteras, 
North Carolina, is seasonally migra¬ 
tory, occupying coastal habitats in 
warmer months and moving offshore 
to areas along the continental shelf 
for the winter (Musick and Mercer, 
1977; Drohan et al., 2007; Moser 
and Shepherd, 2009). While in their 
coastal habitats, adults spawn from 
April to November, and peak spawn¬ 
ing occurs between June and Sep¬ 
tember (Able et al., 1995). Spawning 
begins earlier in southern areas of 
the stock, with the earliest larvae 
found during March off North Caro¬ 
lina, but later in July off New Jersey 
(Able et al., 1995). Young-of-the-year 
(YOY) black sea bass may enter es¬ 
tuaries from July until September at 
total lengths (TLs) of roughly 13-24 
mm (Musick and Mercer, 1977), but 
they can enter as early as March in 
southern areas near Virginia (Kim- 
rnel, 1973). The differences in habitat 
use of YOY and adult black sea bass, 
along with differences in timing of 
spawning and migration into estua¬ 
rine habitats (Drohan et al., 2007), 
make it necessary for age-specific and 
