Nocturnal Fish Use of New Jersey Marsh Creek and Adjacent Bay Shoal Habitats

Night-time sampling with gill nets in the Little Egg Harbor estuary revealed a component of the estuarine fish fauna, hitherto poorly documented, which is comprised of relatively large size classes of juvenile and adult life history stages. The fishesMustelus canis, Pomatomus saltatrix, Paralichthys dentatus, Brevoortia tyrannus, Prionotus evolansandAlosa mediocriswere the most abundant fishes captured. These observations suggest that Mid-Atlantic Bight estuaries are important nurseries for juvenile stages beyond the first year, as well as for the young of the year (YOY). Although many other studies emphasise the importance of estuaries as nurseries for YOY stages, the importance of estuaries to later juvenile life stages has been largely overlooked. This component of estuarine fish fauna has been poorly represented in previous North American studies because of probable gear avoidance, and because most studies are conducted primarily during the day. The authors hypothesise that these later juvenile stages are likely to be important estuarine faunal components in other geographic regions, as well as in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. A descriptive comparison of catches between ebb and flood tide stages, and between bay shoal and tidal marsh creek habitats, suggests that later juvenile and adult stages of several species make tidal migrations into shallow estuarine habitats, such as shoals and marsh creeks, during the night hours.