CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Cruise Dates: 9 September – 17 September 2002

Research Vessel: R/V Aquarius

Principal Investigators: T.J. Miller and E.D. Houde

Chief Scientist: K.L.Curti

Participating Scientists:

Name Affiliatio Joined Left n Ship Ship Laurie Bauer CBL 9/09/02 9/15/02 John Bichy CBL 9/09/02 9/17/02 Kiersten Curti CBL 9/09/02 9/17/02 David Loewensteiner CBL 9/09/02 9/17/02 Tom Miller CBL 9/09/02 9/17/02 Janet Nye CBL 9/15/02 9/17/02

Objectives: Measure the spatial distributions, abundances and biological interactions of juvenile/yearling fishes in the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to fish distribution and abundance measurements, fish samples will be preserved and brought back to the laboratory for dietary analysis.

Stations Occupied: 31 fixed stations along 11 transects and 20 random stations were occupied. Planned stations are shown in Figure 1.

Data / Specimens Collected: Completed CTD casts and mid-water trawls at 51 stations. Collected 73,646 fish (>189 kg) from 33 different taxonomic categories. (Table 2 provides a summary of fish caught). Preserved (frozen or EtOH) samples from each station where fish were collected.

Problems Encountered: There were no major problems during the cruise. Weather concerns from Tropical Storm Gustav, in addition to unforeseeable circumstances with the CBL research fleet, kept the cruise in port from September 10th – 11th. These events caused considerable alteration to the original cruise plan. With the use of two reserved weather day, all 51 planned stations were occupied and sampled. CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

At two stations on the night of September 9th the trawl became twisted and spun, and as a result, tows were repeated. Additionally, the net was beginning to spin just after deployment on several other occasions, but was hauled back to the boat and redeployed shortly thereafter. It was noted that the twisting occurred most often to the side of the trawl being deployed off of the port side of the vessel. It is thought that this problem may be due to the relatively rough sea conditions that evening which made controlling the vessel at slow speeds difficult. Under such conditions, the captain uses only the port side propeller to control the boat, and as a result significantly more prop wash turbulence is created on the port side abaft of the vessel. As a result, the portside depressor may not sink rapidly, or may begin to spin, and the door may have a difficult time catching. Alternatively, the trawl may have been deployed too rapidly, not allowing the depressors to sink effectively. When this occurs, it is possible that the depressors get tangled in the side of the net, causing it to begin spinning. No remedial action is warranted, however, in future extra attention should be given to the deployment of the portside door.

Cruise Summary:

The cruise departed the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland, at 18:06 on 9 September 2002. That evening, the order of stations visited was altered because of the impending tropical storm. In addition, we returned to Solomons following that evening’s sampling due to uncertainty about the weather during following days. Stations 15 and 16 had to be abandoned due to delays from the net spinning and weather conditions. These two stations were occupied subsequently during the cruise on the morning of the 15th. The vessel was forced to stay in port during the evenings of September 10th and 11th. After further alteration of the cruise plan, the cruise resumed on the evening of September 12th, and thereafter weather conditions generally remained favorable. The cruise was completed at 00:30 on the 18th of September. An outline of the order that stations were visited is displayed in Table 1.

Fish were collected at all stations visited. The average catch per station was 1,444  1,614 fish (mean  SD, range 36 – 9,054). In total, 73,646 fish were caught with a total weight of approximately 190 kg. The average catch per station was considerably less than that of the fall 2001 cruise when 4,908 ± 4,073 fish (mean ± SD, range 6 – 7451) were caught per station. Bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli), weakfish (Cynoscion regalis), spot (Leiostomus xanthurus), harvestfish (Peprilus alepidotus), and Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) were common in catches throughout the bay. In all strata, CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

bay anchovy (A. mitchilli) was the most commonly encountered species. Striped anchovy (Anchoa hespetus) were very abundant in the lower and middle strata of the bay, but were uncommon in the upper bay. Harvestfish (P. alepidotus) and Atlantic croaker (M. undulatus) were most common in the lower bay but had decreased abundance in the middle and upper strata of the bay. Atlantic threadfin herring (Opisthonema oglinum) were very abundant in the lower bay, and to a lesser extent in the middle bay strata, but were absent in the upper bay. Juvenile Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) were caught in each stratum of the bay but were most abundant in the upper region. White perch (Morone americanus) were caught exclusively in the upper bay. A summary of the catch for each species in each stratum can be found in Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the catches for the ten most abundant species can be found in Table 3. The raw data is located at hjort.cbl.umces.edu/chesfims.html.

CTD data was collected at every station at which we deployed the mid-water trawl. The CTD was deployed in “live” mode, where it was directly connected to a computer making it possible to view the data collected in real time. Physical oceanographic conditions varied over the sampling grid as expected. Stratifications with respect to salinity and dissolved oxygen were apparent at several of the stations visited. o o Salinities varied from approximately 5.9 /oo at the surface and 8.8 /oo at the bottom of the o most northern station in the upper bay (station 29) to approximately 28.3 /oo at the surface o and 31.3 /oo at the bottom of the most southern transect (stations 1-3) located near the mouth of the Bay. Dissolved oxygen (DO) levels showed some variation across the bay. Surface waters were normoxic and typically approximated 6-8 mg/L. However, bottom water oxygen levels were rather variable (1.6 – 7.1 mg/L) and occasionally less than 4 mg/L and hypoxic (<2 mg/L) at station 117. Temperatures were relatively uniform across the bay, and thermal stratification was not evident. Average temperatures ranged from approximately 23.1o C at station 106 to 25.4 o C at station 108.

Recommendations:

Unfortunately the net monitoring system was not available for this cruise, but it will be ready for use for the 2003 CHESFIMS cruises. This new system should allow for better understanding and possible control over how the net fishes in the water column with respect to tide, current, and sea state. As was successful during this cruise, it will be important to continue to monitor the net and bridle as it is deployed, and if it begins to twist and spin as it enters the water, it should be hauled in and redeployed. CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Additionally, in future cruises it may be helpful to alter the order in which stations are sampled in the upper bay. It may be beneficial to sample the northernmost stations first, and then to sample south towards Annapolis. This change, along with favorable locations of random stations could open the possibility of reduced steaming times and possibly shortening the cruise by one day. CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Table 1. CHESFIMS 2002-03 Station Log: Time in Eastern Daylight Time, coordinates in degrees and minutes. Date Transect Station Time LAT/LONG Activities 9/9/02 Mon 1500 Load R/V Aquarius 1800 Steam to Station 108 RN 108 2101 37 49.134 / 76 4.866 CTD, MWT RN 109 2212 37 53.046 / 76 9.702 CTD, MWT RN 110 2317 37 55.578 / 76 6.342 CTD, MWT 9/10/02 Tue RN 111 0125 37 57.33 / 76 14.472 CTD, MWT 13 18 0225 38 00 / 76 19 CTD, MWT 13 17 0344 38 00 / 76 15 CTD, MWT 0700 Arrive Solomons 9/12/02 Thu 1803 Steam to Station 31 31 31 2009 38 00 / 75 55 CTD, MWT 31 30 2130 37 50 / 75 55.5 CTD, MWT RN 106 2236 37 44.682 / 75 52.218 CTD, MWT RN 105 2338 37 45.618 / 75 58.416 CTD, MWT 9/13/02 Fri RN 107 0025 37 45.894 / 76 1.854 CTD, MWT 09 11 0128 37 40 / 75 59 CTD, MWT 09 12 0224 37 40 / 76 05.5 CTD, MWT 09 13 0307 37 40 / 76 09 CTD, MWT 09 14 0358 37 40 / 76 12.5 CTD, MWT RN 104 0510 37 34.53 / 76 10.392 CTD, MWT 0700 Arrive Deltaville 1853 Steam to Station 10 07 10 1930 37 30 / 76 13 CTD, MWT 07 09 2047 37 30 / 76 07 CTD, MWT 07 08 2153 37 30 / 76 01 CTD, MWT RN 103 2307 37 22.83 / 76 1.584 CTD, MWT 9/14/02 Sat 05 07 0030 37 20 / 76 12 CTD, MWT RN 102 0144 37 16.962 / 76 14.1 CTD, MWT RN 101 0253 37 13.26 / 76 13.554 CTD, MWT 03 05 0354 37 10 / 76 12 CTD, MWT RN 100 0504 37 6.426 / 76 11.64 CTD, MWT RN 99 0551 37 6.984 / 76 8.4 CTD, MWT 0700 Arrive Willoughby Harbor 1843 Steam to Station 1 01 01 1936 36 58 / 76 04 CTD, MWT 01 02 2021 37 01 / 76 02 CTD, MWT 01 03 2105 37 03 / 76 02 CTD, MWT 03 04 2233 37 10 / 76 05 CTD, MWT CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

05 06 2355 37 20 / 76 06 CTD, MWT 9/15/02 Sun 13 16 0313 38 00 / 76 11 CTD, MWT 13 15 0406 38 00 / 76 07 CTD, MWT RN 112 0521 38 8.754 / 76 13.722 CTD, MWT 0700 Arrive Solomons 1857 Steam to Station 113 RN 113 1953 38 9.906 / 76 19.012 CTD, MWT 17 19 2100 38 20 / 76 18.5 CTD, MWT 17 20 2145 38 20 / 76 20 CTD, MWT 17 21 2232 38 20 / 76 22 CTD, MWT RN 114 2329 38 24.894 / 76 18.984 CTD, MWT 9/16/02 Mon RN 115 0042 38 34.362 / 76 20.502 CTD, MWT 21 22 0150 38 40 / 76 25 CTD, MWT 21 23 0249 38 40 / 76 28 CTD, MWT 0520 Arrive Solomons 1810 Steam to Station 29 30 29 2313 39 25 / 76 01.75 CTD, MWT 9/17/02 Tue RN 118 0005 39 22.692 / 76 8.184 CTD, MWT 30 28 0110 39 19 / 76 13 CTD, MWT 30 27 0215 39 13 / 76 15.25 CTD, MWT 25 26 0332 39 07 / 76 19.0 CTD, MWT 25 24 0426 39 01.5 / 76 22.5 CTD, MWT 0530 Arrive Sandy Point State Park 1901 Steam to Station 25 25 25 1941 39 01.5 / 76 23.5 CTD, MWT RN 117 2040 38 58.068 / 76 22.458 CTD, MWT RN 116 2134 38 53.364 / 76 24.372 CTD, MWT 2150 Steam to Solomons 9/18/02 Wed 0030 Arrive Solomons – End of Cruise CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Table 2. Station mean abundance and weight for each species in each strata and overall for CHESFIMS 2002-03. Strata Scientific Name Common Name Data Lower Mid Upper Grand Total Anchoa mitchilli Bay anchovy Sta Ave N 564.31 2059.75 2195.26 1366.33 Sta Ave Wt 534.77 1953.59 1094.44 1129.81 Anchoa hepsetus Striped anchovy Sta Ave N 79.74 46.19 2.86 57.35 Sta Ave Wt 409.87 188.56 21.57 279.47 Morone americana White perch Sta Ave N 30.67 30.67 Sta Ave Wt 4000.00 4000.00 Opisthonema oglinum Atlantic threadfin Sta Ave N 29.42 5.29 23.97 herring Sta Ave Wt 632.06 60.64 503.03 Cynoscion regalis Weakfish Sta Ave N 10.05 14.59 11.29 11.96 Sta Ave Wt 658.86 575.29 279.86 568.33 Micropogonias undulatus Atlantic croaker Sta Ave N 17.15 5.38 7.60 11.69 Sta Ave Wt 1783.00 720.75 649.80 1238.23 Peprilus alepidotus Harvestfish Sta Ave N 20.75 6.36 5.86 11.48 Sta Ave Wt 115.42 93.39 168.14 117.26 Brevoortia tyrannus Atlantic menhaden Sta Ave N 3.91 1.00 13.38 7.55 Sta Ave Wt 343.09 533.00 659.25 479.05 Leiostomus xanthurus Spot Sta Ave N 7.30 3.33 9.67 6.00 Sta Ave Wt 666.10 358.10 1270.67 611.04 Family Sciaenidae Sciaenidae Sta Ave N 3.60 9.92 5.41 Sta Ave Wt 1.00 3.47 1.82 Trinectes maculatus Hogchoker Sta Ave N 2.00 8.00 4.67 Sta Ave Wt 75.00 239.63 148.17 Peprilus triacanthus Butterfish Sta Ave N 2.47 1.00 2.38 Sta Ave Wt 81.87 168.00 87.25 Menticirrhus saxatilis Northern kingfish Sta Ave N 2.29 2.33 2.31 Sta Ave Wt 90.86 15.00 55.85 Sphoeroides maculatus Northern puffer Sta Ave N 2.33 2.00 2.25 Sta Ave Wt 15.00 15.00 Etropus crossotus Fringed flounder Sta Ave N 2.00 2.00 Sta Ave Wt 6.00 6.00 Bairdiella chrysoura Silver perch Sta Ave N 2.33 1.00 2.00 Sta Ave Wt 103.17 31.50 85.25 Anguilla rostrata American eel Sta Ave N 2.00 2.00 Sta Ave Wt 92.00 92.00 Alosa pseudoharengus Alewife Sta Ave N 2.00 2.00 Sta Ave Wt 78.00 78.00 Callinectes sapidus Blue crab Sta Ave N 1.83 2.00 1.88 Sta Ave Wt CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Strata Scientific Name Common Name Data Lower Mid Upper Grand Total Symphurus plagiusa Blackcheek Sta Ave N 1.67 2.00 1.75 tonguefish Sta Ave Wt 27.67 1.00 21.00 Genus Callinectes Callinectes Sta Ave N 1.33 1.33 Sta Ave Wt Chaetodipterus faber Spadefish Sta Ave N 1.00 1.25 1.20 Sta Ave Wt 98.00 14.00 35.00 Synodus foetens Inshore lizardfish Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 105.00 105.00 Pomatomus saltatrix Bluefish Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 3.17 168.00 225.00 80.50 Scomberomorus maculatus Spanish mackerel Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 7.50 7.50 Morone saxatilis Striped bass Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 885.00 146.50 392.67 Hippocampus erectus Lined seahorse Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 0.51 0.51 Gobiidae Goby Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 1.00 1.00 1.00 Cynoscion nebulosus Spotted seatrout Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 93.00 93.00 Orthopristis chrysoptera Pigfish Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 62.00 62.00 Prionotus sp. Searobin Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 1.00 1.00 Paralichthys dentatus Summer flounder Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 1500.00 1500.00 Ameiurus catus White catfish Sta Ave N 1.00 1.00 Sta Ave Wt 168.00 168.00 CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Table 3. Biological characteristics of the ten most abundant species for CHESFIMS 2002-03. CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Scientific Name Common Name Descriptor Total Anchoa mitchilli Bay Anchovy Total N 68316.38 Ave SL 52.831 Min SL 21 Max SL 107 Anchoa hepsetus Striped Anchovy Total N 2752.59 Ave SL 86.74 Min SL 30 Max SL 138 Opisthonema oglinum Atlantic Threadfin Herring Total N 743 Ave SL 117.41 Min SL 73 Max SL 238 Cynoscion regalis Weakfish Total N 538 Ave SL 136.24 Min SL 26 Max SL 364 Peprilus alepidotus Harvestfish Total N 379 Ave SL 79.05 Min SL 20 Max SL 212 Micropogonias undulatus Croaker Total N 304 Ave SL 204.80 Min SL 105 Max SL 340 Brevoortia tyrannus Atlantic menhaden Total N 151 Ave SL 169.69 Min SL 127 Max SL 365 Leiostomus xanthurus Spot Total N 132 Ave SL 188.48 Min SL 157 Max SL 289 Morone americana white perch Total N 92 Ave SL 207.93 Min SL 146 Max SL 295 Trinectes maculatus Hogchoker Total N 42 Ave SL 111.16 Min SL 76 Max SL 152 CHESFIMS 2002-03 Cruise Report

Figure 1. Map of fixed (orange circles) and random (circles, squares, triangles) stations occupied for CF0203.