Administration United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Laboratories Department of Environmental Research Joe Commerce Seattle WA 98115 L lie EPA 600 7 80 027 United States Office of Environmental Environmental Protection Engmeering and Technology January 1980 DC 20460 PA Agency Washington Researdl and Development Nearshore Fish and Macroinvertebrate Assemblages Along the Strait of Juan de Fuca Including Food Habits of the Common Nearshore Fish Interagency Energy Environment R D Program Report 4lII i J I I 1 I i I 11 n I RESEARCH REPORTING SERIES I Research reports of the Office of Research and Development U S Environmental Protection a f Agency have been grouped into nine series These nine broad cate gories were established to facilitate further development and application of en vironmental technology Elimination of traditional grouping was consciously planned to foster technology transfer and a maximum interface in related fields a I The nine series are I I 1 Environmental Health Effects Research I 2 Environmental Protection Technology o I 3 Ecological Research 4 Environmental Monitoring 5 Socioeconomic Environmental Studies o 6 SCientific and Technical Assessment Reports STAR 7 Interagency Energy Environment Research and Development 8 Special Reports o 9 Mi scellaneous Repons This report has been assigned to the INTERAGENCY ENERGY ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT series Reports in this series result from the o effort funded under the 17 agency Federal Energy Environment Research and Development Program These studies relate to EPA s miSSion to protect the public health and welfare from adverse effects of pollutants associated with energy sys terns The goal of the Program is to assure the rapid development of domestic o energy supplies in an environmentally compatible manner by providing the nec essary environmental data and control technology Investigations include analy ses of the transport of energy related pOllutants and their health and ecological o effects assessments of and development of control technologies for energy and assessments systems integrated of a wide range of energy related environ mental issues D o o U U1 This document is available to the public through the National Technicallnforma tion Service Springfield Virginia 22161 u u I m NEARSHORE FISH AND MACRO INVERTEBRATE D ASSEMBLAGES ALONG THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA INCLUDING FOOD HABITS OF THE COMMON NEARSHORE FISH I Final Report of Three Years Sampling 1976 1979 n by I Bruce S Miller Principal Investigator Charles A Simenstad Project Leader Fish Food Habits Jeffrey N Cross Research Associate Nearshore Demersal and Intertidal Fishes Kurt L Fresh I Research Assistant Neritic Fishes and S Nancy Steinfort Fish Biologist Fish Food Habits I Fisheries Research Institute College of Fisheries University of Washington I Seattle Washington 98195 I Prepared for MESA Marine Ecosystems Analysis Puget Sound Project I Seattle Washington in partial fulfillment of EPA Interagency Agreement No D6 E693 EN I Program Element No EHE 625 A I This study was conducted as part of the Feder al Interagency Energy Environment I Research and Development Program I Prepared for OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY I OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT U S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY WASHINGTON D C 20460 I January 1980 I I I I Completion Report Submitted to I PUGET SOUND ENERGY RELATED RESEARCH PROJECT OFFICE OF MARINE POLLUTION ASSESSMENT NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION I by Fisheries Research Institute I College of Fisheries University of Washington Seattle Washington 98195 I I I I I I I DISCLAIMER This work is the result of research sponsored by the Environmental I Protection Agency and administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration I The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA does not approve recommend or endorse any proprietary product or proprietary material mentioned in this publication No reference shall be made to I NOAA or to this publication furnished by NOAA in any advertising or sales promotion which endorses any proprietary product or proprietary material mentioned herein or which has as its purpose an intent to cause directly or indirectly the advertised product to be used or purchased because of I this publication I ii I I I ABSTRACT m A seasonal survey of nearshore fishes was made in the Strait of Juan de Fuca from May 1976 to June 1979 A beach seine was used for sampling I nearshore demersal fishes and a townet for nearshore pelagic fishes inter tidal fishes were sampled with the use of anesthetic and a hand net During 1976 1978 the maeroinvertebrates caught incidentally in the beach seine I and townet were also recorded Data recorded for fish and macroinvertebrates were species present life history stage from size abundance biomass food habits and presence of external abnormalities or disease I The total number of nearshore demersal and pelagic fish species decreased from east to west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca but the total number of inter tidal species increased however it was postulated that this opposite trend D was due to the same habitat relationship species diversity increased as habitat heterogeneity increased Nearshore demersal and pelagic fish catches were dominated by juvenile and larval life history stages while intertidal collections were primarily adults and juveniles There is little overlap I between the nearshore demersal pelagic fish assemblages and the intertidal fish assemblages and there is no evidence that the rocky intertidal is sig nificantly utilized by the common subtidal species as a spawning or nursery I area Common nearshore demersal fishes were the flatfish and sculpins while I herring clearly predominated in the nearshore pelagic zone although smelt and Pacific sand lance were also important The common rocky intertidal fishes were the sculpins and pricklebacks 1 e eel blennies I Seasonal trends were pronounced in the nearshore demersal and pelagic fishes but largely absent in the rocky intertidal fishes Nearshore demersal species were generally at their maximum number of species abundance biomass I in the summer and at their minimum in the winter although at the protected sites the maximum often extended from spring through fall Nearshore pelagic species were at their maximum in the spring summer and at a minimum in the I winter The common fish species found in this survey were categorized into nine functional feeding groups based on their stomach contents The most impor I tant food item found was epibenthic zooplankton for nearshore demersal fishes while pelagic nearshore fishes fed primarily on pelagic zooplankton Size I selection was indicated by fish preying on zooplankton This study was set up as a first time survey of the fishes of the Strait of Juan de Fuca However it also demonstrated that there is a great deal I of variation from year to year season to season from site to site and between hauls How much of this is sampling variation and how much is natural biological variation was not determined although we believe most is natural biological variation To statistically use the data attained in this study I to assess the result of a perturbation on nearshore fishes in the Strait of Juan de Fuca would require that the abundance of nearshore demersal fishes be decreased by about 75 to be detected and would require that the nearshore I pelagic fishes be decreased by about 95 to be detected We believe the in formation is better used to help in predicting the results of various man induced alterations proposed for the Strait of Juan de Fuca I iii I I I TABLE OF CONTENTS D Abstract iii List of Tables vi List of Figures ix n List of Appendices x Acknowledgments xii D 1 Introduction 1 2 Conclusions 2 g 3 Materials and Methods 6 3 1 Study Sites and Sampling Frequency 6 3 2 Sampling Techniques 6 3 3 Collection Information 10 I 3 4 Biological Information 10 3 5 Processing the Catches 11 3 6 Stomach Analyses 11 I 3 7 Possible Sources of Error 11 3 8 Definitions and Statistics 12 3 9 Disposition of Data 15 I 3 10 Species Nomenclature 15 4 Results and Discussion 16 4 1 Oceanographic Conditions 16 I 4 2 Nearshore Fish Species Composition 16 4 3 Nearshore Fish Species Richness 30 4 4 Nearshore Fish Density 39 I 4 5 Nearshore Fish Standing Crop 50 4 6 Occurrence of Fin Rot Lesions Tumors and Parasites 56 I 4 7 Detecting Changes in Fish Abundance and Biomass after a Perturbation 62 4 8 Macroinvertebrates 67 4 9 Food Web Relationships 71 I 4 10 Potential Effects of Petroleum Hydrocarbons on the Nearshore Fish Communities along the Strait of I Juan de Fuca 105 5 Literature Cited 111 I 6 Appendices 116 I I I v I I LIST OF TABLES I Number Page I 1 Characterization of study sites along the Strait of Juan de Fuca 8 I 2 IRI table 14 3 Summary of stepwise multiple linear regression of log abundance and log weight against temperature salinity I and dissolved oxygen for beach seine catches 17 4 Summary of stepwise multiple linear regression of log I abundance and log weight against temperature salinity and dissolved oxygen for townet catches 18 I 5 Number of species collected by each sampling method 19 6 Nearshore fish species collected by beach seine townet and tidepool 20 I 7 Rank order of the most abundant fishes in beach seine collections 22 I 8 Regularly occurring and abundant species in beach seine collections by site and by season for each of the study years 23 I 9 Rank order of the most abundant fishes in townet collections 27 I 10 Regularly occurring and abundant