143 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
fy- established in 1881 •<?. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Use of gill nets and telemetry in tracking 
movements and feeding of striped bass 
(Morofie saxatillsh bluefish iPomatomus 
saltatrix}, and weakfish iCynoscion regalis} 
at a salinity front In a small estuary 
Email address for contact author: linda.stehlik@noaa.gov 
Abstract —The hypothesis that 
striped bass (Morone saxatilis), blue- 
fish (Pomatomus saltatrix), weakfish 
{Cynoscion regalis), and species of 
forage fish would be associated close¬ 
ly with a salinity transition front was 
tested through sampling and tagging 
efforts. In a small New Jersey estu¬ 
ary, a station at a salinity front and 
another in a nearby channel were 
sampled weekly with gill nets. Abun¬ 
dance of bluefish was significantly 
greater at the front, and abundance 
of weakfish was significantly greater 
at the channel. Forage fish were col¬ 
lected at both stations, and the diets 
of bluefish and weakfish overlapped 
in all seasons. Ultrasonically tagged 
striped bass, weakfish, and bluefish 
were tracked concurrently, and their 
home ranges, or the 95% probability 
of their occurrences were computed. 
Home ranges of tagged striped bass 
occurred upriver and also near river 
kilometer 1. Home ranges of weak¬ 
fish were located in the midriver 
channels, and those of bluefish were 
located midriver and upriver at river 
kilometers 5-12. Home ranges for 
these 3 species were not limited to 
the area of the salinity front, con¬ 
trary to the initial hypothesis. 
Manuscript submitted 4 November 2015. 
Manuscript accepted 8 December 2016. 
Fish. Bull. 115:143-154 (2017). 
Online publication date: 24 January 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.115.2.2 
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. 
Linda L. Stehlik (contact author) 
John P. Manderson 
Jeffrey Pessutti 
Fisheries Ecology Branch 
Ecosystems and Aquaculture Division 
Northeast Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory 
74 Magruder Road 
Highlands, New Jersey 07732 
Small tributaries of temperate-zone 
estuaries have vital but incompletely 
understood roles as sources of energy 
for growth of many sought-after com¬ 
mercial and recreational fish species. 
In flood-dominated estuaries, tidal 
movements and freshwater discharg¬ 
es create a salinity transition zone 
or front, where saline and riverine 
waters mix, with a salinity gradient 
forming both horizontally and verti¬ 
cally. Turbulent mixing in this zone 
may produce a turbidity maximum, 
where inorganic and organic par¬ 
ticulates are suspended. The frontal 
boundary allows retention of nutri¬ 
ents, phytoplankton, microbes, and 
zooplankton (Grimes and Kingsford, 
1996; Epifanio and Garvine, 2001). 
High freshwater discharges stabi¬ 
lize the duration and volume of such 
a nutrient-rich habitat (Morgan et 
ah, 1997; Roman et ah, 2001). It has 
been hypothesized that, with such 
mixing, food is concentrated for con¬ 
sumers, including larval and small- 
size fish, which in turn attract larger 
predators (North and Houde, 2001; 
Martino and Houde, 2010). 
The Navesink River, a flood-dom¬ 
inated small tributary of the Hud- 
son-Raritan Estuary in New Jersey 
that borders the Mid-Atlantic Bight, 
is used by predatory fish, forage fish, 
and invertebrate species (Shaheen et 
ah, 2001; Stoner et ah, 2001; Meise 
and Stehlik, 2003; Scharf et ah, 2004; 
Manderson et ah, 2006; Manderson 
et ah^). Previous hydrographic stud¬ 
ies have delineated a convergence 
zone or salinity transition zone in 
the upper river (Chant and Stoner, 
2001; Fugate and Chant, 2005). In 
this river system, 3 of the domi¬ 
nant pelagic predators are bluefish 
{Pomatomus saltatrix), striped bass 
' Manderson, J. P., J. Pessutti, J. Rosen- 
dale, and B. Phelan. 2007. Estua¬ 
rine habitat dynamics and telemetered 
movements of three pelagic fishes: scale, 
complexity, behavioral flexihility and 
the development of an ecophysiologi- 
cal framework. ICES Council Meeting 
(C.M.) Documents 2007/G:02, 36 p. 
