Primary objectives were to assess the occurrence, abundance and geographical distribution
of the early life stages of fall spawning fishes, especially red drum, red snapper
and other snapper species, and king and Spanish mackerel, Gulf-wide on the U.S. continental
shelf using a bongo frame fitted with 0.335 mm mesh nets and a neuston frame fitted
with a 0.950 mm mesh net at selected SEAMAP stations, and describe the pelagic habitat
of fish larvae through measurements of various physical and biological parameters
including salinity, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and chlorophyll. |