Fishery Publication Index, 1980-85 and Technical Memorandum Index, 1972-85

The following series of fishery publications produced in calendar years 1980-85 by the Scientific Publications OffIce of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are listed numerically and indexed by author and subject: Circular, Fishery BuUetin, Marine Fisheries Review, Special Scientific Report-Fisheries, and Technical Report NMFS. Also included is an alphanumeric listing of the NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS series published in calendar years 1972-85 by NMFS regional offices and fisheries centers. Authors and subjects for the Memoradum series are indexed with the other publication series. (PDF file contains 156 pages.)

Marine flora and fauna of the northeastern United States. Echinodermata: Echinoidea

The echinoid fauna from littoral to abyssal depths off the northeastern United States (Cape Hatteras, NC, to northern Nova Scotia) comprises 31 species, in 26 genera and 19 families. An introduction to the external morphology, distribution, and natural history is given along with an illustrated key to the species, an annotated systematic list, and an index. The fauna Includes 17 species with wide-ranging distributions on continental slopes or abyssal plains. The remaining 14 species occur in shallower waters on the continental shelf or upper slope. Of these, eight are tropical in distribution with their northern range extending to the northeastern United States and three are mainly boreal with the northeastern United States at the southern limit of their range. Two species occur only off the eastern United States and one species is cosmopolitan. (PDF file contains 33 pages.)

Chemosensory response of marine flagellate towards L- and D- dissolved free amino acids generated during heavy grazing on bacteria

This study investigated the generation of dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) by the bacterivorous flagellate Rhynchomonas nasuta when feeding on abundant prey. Specifically, it examined whether this flagellate protist exhibits a chemosensory response towards those amino acids. The concentrations of glycine and the and D-enantiomers of glutamate, serine, threonine, alanine, and leucine were determined in co-cultures of the flagellate and bacteria. Glycine, L- and D-alanine, and L-serine were found to accumulate under these conditions in amounts that correlated positively with flagellate abundance, suggesting that protists are involved in their generation. Investigations of the chemotactic response of young and old foraging protists to the same amino acids, offered in concentrations similar to those previously generated, showed that glycine elicited the strongest attraction in both age groups. Young protists were strongly attracted to all the assayed amino acids, whereas older protists maintained a high level of attraction only for glycine. These results suggest that glycine generated by protists actively grazing in bacterially enriched patches functions as an infochemical, signaling to foraging protists the presence of available prey in the aquatic environment.

Panama City Fisheries Resources Office: FY 2002 Annual Report

HIGHLIGHTS FOR FY 2002 1. United States Senator Bob Graham assisted with a Gulf sturgeon survey. 2. Completed 3-year Gulf sturgeon population study in the Choctawhatchee River drainage. 3. Completed Gulf sturgeon potential spawning habitat survey for Northwest Florida and Southeast Alabama river systems. 4. Initiated Gulf sturgeon marine habitat and food resources study. 5. Completed Gulf sturgeon sentinel fish study. 6. Coordinated and conducted tagging of over 110,000 Phase II striped bass at Welaka and Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery. 7. Completed Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge fishery sampling. 8. Developed a manuscript regarding the fishery of Banks Lake NWR. 9. Initiated development of a fish Index of Biotic Integrity for Florida panhandle streams. 10. Coordinated Okaloosa darter workshop. 11. Continued examining insect communities on Eglin AFB. 12. Sponsored and coordinated stream restoration workshop. 13. Provided technical assistance via Partners for Fish and Wildlife for stream restoration within the Northeast Gulf Ecosystem. 14. Finalized regional curve development in the Northern Region of Florida and secured significant funds for FY03 to expand to other regions in Florida. 15. Initiated freshwater mussel conservation in the Northeastern Gulf Ecosystem.

A new adaptive marine policy toolbox to support ecosystem-based approach to management

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Evaluation of marine phytoplankton toxicity by application of marine invertebrate bioassays

The dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum and the haptophyte Prymnesium parvum are well known for their toxin production and negative effects in marine coastal environments. A. minutum produces toxins which cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans and can affect copepods, shellfish and other marine organisms. Toxins of P. parvum are associated with massive fish mortalities resulting in negative impacts on the marine ecosystem and large economic losses in commercial aquaculture. The aim of this work is to improve our knowledge about the reliability of the use of marine invertebrate bioassays to detect microalgae toxicity, by performing: (i) a 24- to 48-h test with the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana; (ii) a 48-hour embryo-larval toxicity test with the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus; and (iii) a 72-h test with the amphipod Corophium multisetosum. The results indicate that A. franciscana and P. lividus larvae are sensitive to the toxicity of A. minutum and P. parvum. LC50 comparison analysis between the tested organisms reveals that A. franciscana is the most sensitive organism for A. minutum. These findings suggest that the use of different organizational biological level bioassays appears to be a suitable tool for A. minutum and P. parvum toxicity assessment.

Diet composition and food habits of demersal and pelagic marine fishes from Terengganu waters, east coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Fish stomachs from 18 demersal and pelagic fishes from the coast of Terengganu in Malaysia were examined. The components of the fishes’ diets varied in number, weight, and their frequency of occurrence. The major food items in the stomachs of each species were determined using an Index of Relative Importance. A conceptual food web structure indicates that fish species in the study area can be classified into three predatory groups: (1) predators on largely planktivorous or pelagic species; (2) predators on largely benthophagous or demersal species; and (3) mixed feeders that consume both pelagic and demersal species.

An Index of Abundance for Coastal Species of Juvenile Sharks from the Northeast Gulf of Mexico

A fishery-independent assessment of juvenile coastal shark populations in U.S. waters of the northeast Gulf of Mexico was conducted using two methods: gillnets and longlines. Surveys were conducted monthly during April–October in two fixed sampling areas from 1996 to 1998. The Atlantic sharpnose shark, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae, and the blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, were the most common species captured with either longlines or gillnets. An additional 14 shark species were captured, and juvenile indices of abundance were developed for 8 species with gillnets and 6 species of sharks with longlines. Trends in catch-per-unit-effort were found to vary depending on species. Length-frequency information revealed that the majority of sharks captured were juveniles. Given the direct relationship between stock and recruitment for sharks, continued monitoring of juvenile abundance will aid in determining the strength of the parental stock size and for predicting future population strength.

Feeding Ecology of the Franciscana (Pontoporia blainvillei) In Marine And Estuarine Waters Of Argentina

Stomach contents of 110 franciscanas (Pontoporia blainvillei), from northern Argentina were analysed in order to improve our knowledge about the feeding habits of this species and to better characterise the lactation period. The samples included calves, juveniles and adults of both sexes. Evidence of predation by franciscanas is seen at a very young age (2.5-3 months), with a transition diet composed by both milk and solid food, mainly represented by crustaceans. Weaning seems to begin by April, when franciscanas are about 6-7 months old. Franciscanas inhabiting two different habitats were analysed in this study: a brackish water estuary and an adjacent marine coastal system. The diet of Pontoporia blainvillei in northern Argentina was composed by a total of 26 prey species: 20 teleosts, 4 crustaceans and 2 cephalopods. Based on the Index of Relative Importance (IRI) the main prey species were Cynoscion guatucupa, Micropogonias furnieri, Loligo sanpaulensis and Urophycis brasiliensis. Estuarine franciscanas preyed mainly on Micropogonias furnieri (dominant species), Cynoscion guatucupa, Odonthestes argentinensis and Macrodon ancylodon, while dolphins from marine areas preyed mainly on Cynoscion guatucupa (dominant species), Loligo sanpaulensis and Urophycis brasiliensis. Our results confirm that franciscanas prey mainly on juvenile fish (< 8cm) and small loliginid squids, in close agreement with previous results obtained in southern Brazil and Uruguay. Qualitative and quantitative differences observed in the diet of dolphins from each habitat emphasise the need to discriminate between samples from different habitats and environmental parameters. SPANISH: Se analizaron 110 contenidos estomacales de franciscanas (Pontoporia blainvillei) provenientes de la costa norte de Argentina, para extender en conocimiento sobre su dieta y caracterizar la lactancia. Las muestras incluyeron cachorros, juveniles y adultos de ambos sexos. Las primeras etapas de predación se inician a muy temprana edad (2,5-3 meses), presentando una dieta de transición compuesta tanto por leche como por presas sólidas, principalmente crustáceos; el destete se iniciaría a partir de abril, a una edad estimada entre 6 y 7 meses. Las franciscanas estudiadas provienen de dos habitats diferentes: un área estuarial de baja salinidad y la region marina adyacente. La dieta de Pontoporia blainvillei de Argentina estuvo compuesta por un total de 26 especies: 20 teleósteos, 4 crustáceos y 2 cefalópodos. Basados en el Indice de Importancia Relativa (IIR), las presas más importantes fueron Cynoscion guatucupa, Micropogonias furnieri, Loligo sanpaulensis y Urophycis brasiliensis. Las franciscanas provenientes del área estuarial predaron principalmente sobre Micropogonias furnieri (especie dominante), Cynoscion guatucupa, Odonthestes argentinensis y Macrodon ancylodon, mientras que los delfines marinos predaron sobre Cynoscion guatucupa (especie dominante), Loligo sanpaulensis y Urophycis brasiliensis. Nuestros resultados confirman que la franciscana preda sobre peces juveniles (< 8cm) y pequeños calamares Loliginidae, coincidiendo con resultados previos obtenidos en el sur del Brasil y Uruguay. Las diferencias cualitativas y cuantitativas observadas en la dieta de cada uno de las áreas analizadas, nos sugieren que los futuros estudios sobre ecología trófica de la franciscana deberían discriminarse de acuerdo al origen de los ejemplares y a la tipificación del ambiente.

Marine Fisheries Stock Assessment Improvement Plan: report of the National Marine Fisheries Service National Task Force for Improving Fish Stock Assessments

This report argues for greatly increased resources in terms of data collection facilities and staff to collect, process, and analyze the data, and to communicate the results, in order for NMFS to fulfill its mandate to conserve and manage marine resources. In fact, the authors of this report had great difficulty defining the "ideal" situation to which fisheries stock assessments and management should aspire. One of the primary objectives of fisheries management is to develop sustainable harvest policies that minimize the risks of overfishing both target species and associated species. This can be achieved in a wide spectrum of ways, ranging between the following two extremes. The first is to implement only simple management measures with correspondingly simple assessment demands, which will usually mean setting fishing mortality targets at relatively low levels in order to reduce the risk of unknowingly overfishing or driving ecosystems towards undesirable system states. The second is to expand existing data collection and analysis programs to provide an adequate knowledge base that can support higher fishing mortality targets while still ensuring low risk to target and associated species and ecosystems. However, defining "adequate" is difficult, especially when scientists have not even identified all marine species, and information on catches, abundances, and life histories of many target species, and most associated species, is sparse. Increasing calls from the public, stakeholders, and the scientific community to implement ecosystem-based stock assessment and management make it even more difficult to define "adequate," especially when "ecosystem-based management" is itself not well-defined. In attempting to describe the data collection and assessment needs for the latter, the authors took a pragmatic approach, rather than trying to estimate the resources required to develop a knowledge base about the fine-scale detailed distributions, abundances, and associations of all marine species. Thus, the specified resource requirements will not meet the expectations of some stakeholders. In addition, the Stock Assessment Improvement Plan is designed to be complementary to other related plans, and therefore does not duplicate the resource requirements detailed in those plans, except as otherwise noted.

A biogeographic assessment of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary: a review of boundary expansion concepts for NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program

The priority management goal of the National Marine Sanctuaries Program (NMSP) is to protect marine ecosystems and biodiversity. This goal requires an understanding of broad-scale ecological relationships and linkages between marine resources and physical oceanography to support an ecosystem management approach. The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) is currently reviewing its management plan and investigating boundary expansion. A management plan study area (henceforth, Study Area) was described that extends from the current boundary north to the mainland, and extends north to Point Sal and south to Point Dume. Six additional boundary concepts were developed that vary in area and include the majority of the Study Area. The NMSP and CINMS partnered with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Biogeography Team to conduct a biogeographic assessment to characterize marine resources and oceanographic patterns within and adjacent to the sanctuary. This assessment includes a suite of quantitative spatial and statistical analyses that characterize biological and oceanographic patterns in the marine region from Point Sal to the U.S.-Mexico border. These data were analyzed using an index which evaluates an ecological “cost-benefit” within the proposed boundary concepts and the Study Area. The sanctuary resides in a dynamic setting where two oceanographic regimes meet. Cold northern waters mix with warm southern waters around the Channel Islands creating an area of transition that strongly influences the regions oceanography. In turn, these processes drive the biological distributions within the region. This assessment analyzes bathymetry, benthic substrate, bathymetric life-zones, sea surface temperature, primary production, currents, submerged aquatic vegetation, and kelp in the context of broad-scale patterns and relative to the proposed boundary concepts and the Study Area. Boundary cost-benefit results for these parameters were variable due to their dynamic nature; however, when analyzed in composite the Study Area and Boundary Concept 2 were considered the most favorable. Biological data were collected from numerous resource agencies and university scientists for this assessment. Fish and invertebrate trawl data were used to characterize community structure. Habitat suitability models were developed for 15 species of macroinvertebrates and 11 species of fish that have significant ecological, commercial, or recreational importance in the region and general patterns of ichthyoplankton distribution are described. Six surveys of ship and plane at-sea surveys were used to model marine bird diversity from Point Arena to the U.S.-Mexico border. Additional surveys were utilized to estimate density and colony counts for nine bird species. Critical habitat for western snowy plover and the location of California least tern breeding pairs were also analyzed. At-sea surveys were also used to describe the distribution of 14 species of cetaceans and five species of pinnipeds. Boundary concept cost-benefit indices revealed that Boundary Concept 2 and the Study Area were most favorable for the majority of the species-specific analyses. Boundary Concept 3 was most favorable for bird diversity across the region. Inadequate spatial resolution for fish and invertebrate community data and incompatible sampling effort information for bird and mammal data precluded boundary cost-benefit analysis.

Ecological Condition of Coastal Ocean Waters within Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary: 2008

In June 2008, the NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS), in conjunction with the EPA National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory (NHEERL), conducted an assessment of the status of ecological condition of soft-bottom habitat and overlying waters within the boundaries of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS). The sanctuary lies approximately 20 nautical miles east of Boston, MA in the southwest Gulf of Maine between Cape Ann and Cape Cod and encompassing 638 square nautical miles (2,181 km2). A total of 30 stations were targeted for sampling using standard methods and indicators applied in prior NOAA coastal studies and EPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and National Coastal Assessment (NCA). A key feature adopted from these studies was the incorporation of a random probabilistic sampling design. Such a design provides a basis for making unbiased statistical estimates of the spatial extent of ecological condition relative to various measured indicators and corresponding thresholds of concern. Indicators included multiple measures of water quality, sediment quality, and biological condition (benthic fauna, fish tissue contaminant levels). Depths ranged from 31 – 137 m throughout the study area. About 76 % of the area had sediments composed of sands (< 20 % silt-clay), 17 % of the area was composed of intermediate muddy sands (20 – 80 % silt-clay), and 7 % of the sampled area consisted of mud (> 80 % siltclay). About 70 % of the area (represented by 21 sites) had sediment total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations < 5 mg/g and all but one site (located in Stellwagen Basin) had levels of TOC < 20 mg/g, which is well below the range potentially harmful to benthic fauna (> 50 mg/g). Surface salinities ranged from 30.6 – 31.5 psu, with the majority of the study region (approximately 80 % of the area) having surface salinities between 30.8 and 31.4 psu. Bottom salinities varied between 32.1 and 32.5 psu, with bottom salinities at all sites having values above the range of surface salinities. Surface-water temperatures varied between 12.1 and 16.8 ºC, while near-bottom waters ranged in temperature from 4.4 – 6.2 ºC. An index of density stratification (Δσt) indicated that the waters of SBNMS were stratified at the time of sampling. Values of Δσt at 29 of the 30 sites sampled in this study (96.7 % of the study area) varied from 2.1 – 3.2, which is within the range considered to be indicative of strong vertical stratification (Δσt > 2) and typical of the western Gulf of Maine in summer. Levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) were confined to a fairly narrow range in surface (8.8 – 10.4 mg/L) and bottom (8.5 – 9.6 mg/L) waters throughout the survey area. These levels are within the range considered indicative of good water quality (> 5 mg/L) with respect to DO. None of these waters had DO at low levels (< 2 mg/L) potentially harmful to benthic fauna and fish.

Quantitative determination of the timing of otolith ring formation from marginal increments in four marine teleost species from northwestern Australia

The sectioned otoliths of four fish species from a tropical demersal trawl fishery in Western Australia revealed a series of alternating trans-lucent and opaque zones in reflected light. The translucent zones, referred to as growth rings, were counted to determine fish ages. The width of the opaque zone on the periphery of the otolith section as a proportion of the width of the previous opaque zone (index of completion) was used to determine the periodicity of growth-ring formation. This article describes a method for modeling changes in the index of ring completion over time, from which a parameter for the most probable time of growth-ring formation (with confidence intervals) can be determined. The parameter estimate for the timing of new growth-ring formation for Lethrinus sp. 3 was from mid July to mid September, for Lutjanus vitta from early July to the end of August, for Nemipterus furcosus from mid July to late September, and for Lutjanus sebae from mid July to mid November. The confidence intervals for the timing of formation of growth rings was variable between species, being smallest for L. vitta, and variable between fish of the same species with different numbers of growth rings. The stock assessments of these commercially important species relies on aging information for all the age classes used in the assessment. This study demonstrated that growth rings on sectioned otoliths were laid down annually, irrespective of the number of growth rings, and also demonstrated that the timing of ring formation for these tropical species can be determined quantitatively (with confidence intervals.

Some aspects on growth and condition index of Saccostrea cucullata (Born), Cerithium rubus (Desh) and Tellina angulata Gmelin from Bombay coast

Size variation, growth, condition index and spawning periodicities of three species of molluscs were studied for a period of 15 months from a polluted and a relatively clean marine habitat near Bombay, Maharashtra, India. Growth of Saccostrea cucullata was 1.2 times and of Cerithium rubus was 1.6 times higher in unpolluted habitat than the polluted water. Spawning was during premonsoon in S. cucullata, post monsoon in C. rubus and monsoon in Tellina angulata. Condition index and percentage edibility values were higher at less polluted stations.

The study of ecological condition on productivity of Tajan River estuary in Mazandaran Province Caspian Sea

This project was done during a one-year period (2006-2007) with the aim of assessing and evaluating the susceptible and vulnerable habitat of Tajan River estuarine region as well as identifying its ecological features. This region consists of Tajan estuarine region as one of the sub-basins of the Caspian Sea basin which covers a surface of 2km2. In this assessment, 6 riverine estuarine and marine stations were chosen in which non-biotic parameters such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH and nutrients, and biotic parameters such as variation, density, plankton, primary production by chlorophyll-a. Benthos variation density, silt and the organic materials of the sediments were sampled and measured monthly. The amount of chlorophyll-a concentration and primary production showed a lot of seasonal changes at these stations which ranged from0.3 to 96 mg/m3. The results from the primary productions indicated that the eastern station of the estuary had high concentrations of chlorophyll-a during all seasons (96mg/m3). The most important and dominant planktonic groups in this region included Bacillariophyta from plankton and copepoda from zooplankton. The most important Benthos communities consisted of Driessena polymorpha.Cerastoderma lamarki in estuarine region,Chironomus plumosus in riverine region and Hypaniola sp. In marine region. Assessing the annual variation in these three riverine, estuarine and marine regions, phytoplankton with 3.1, Zooplankton with 2.7 and Benthos with 1.9 Showed the most density in the estuarine region. Assessing the annual density, phytoplanktonic (6118967 no . in m3) and zooplanktonic (7272 no . in m3) communities showed the most density in the marine region. Assessing the statistical tests showed that the estuarine and riverine regions had a significant difference in planktonic density (p<0.005) compared with the marine region. Moreover, The zeoplanktonic density in the marine region had a significant difference (p<0.005) with estuarine and riverine regions. Tooki test and one-way variance Analysis showed that in assessing the planktonic groups (p<0.005) and Benthos (p<0.005), there was a significant difference in variation index between river with estuary, and estuary with the sea. The amount of the total annual live biomass of the Benthos resource in Tajan river estuarine region was estimated 757.66 g/m2.