CHECKLIST OF FISHES OF THE JACQUES COUSTEAU NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE AT MULLICA RIVER-GREAT BAY Kenneth W. Able Marine Field Station, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Rutgers, The State University ofNew Jersey Tuckerton, New Jersey 08087-2004 IMCS Contribution #99-22 NERR Contribution #99-1 01 Technical Report CHECKLIST OF FISHES OF THE JACQUES COUSTEAU NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE AT MULLICA RIVER-GREAT BAY Kenneth W. Able Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Rutgers. The State University ofNew Jersey 71 Dudley Road New Brunswick. New Jersey 08901-8521 This is Contribution #99-22 of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences anJ Contribution #99-1 0 I of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................... 1 STUDY SITE . 1 FISH FAUNA ......................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEGMENTS ................................................. 3 LITERATURE CITED . 4 TABLE 1. Checklist of saltwater and freshwater fishes in the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve at Mullica River-Great Bay . 10 FIGURE 1. Location of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve in southern New Jersey .................................................. 24 FIGURE 2. Representative physical characteristics within the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve at Mullica River-Great Bay along the coastal ocean to tidal freshwater corridor during 1988 .................................................... 25 INTRODUCTION One of the functions ofNational Estuarine Research Reserves is to stimulate high-quality research that will aid in the management of the coastal zone of the United States. This possibility is enhanced if the flora and fauna are well-known. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed checklist of the fishes ( elasmobranchs and teleosts) for the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve at Mullica River-Great Bay in southern New Jersey. This effort is part of a larger project designed to construct checklists of all the components of the flora and fauna for this relatively unaltered estuarine system (Psuty et al. I993). STUDY SITE This reserve consists of over 40.500 hectares (I 00.000 acres) in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary and includes a corridor of habitats ranging from tidal freshwater through oligohaline. mesohaline and polyhaline estuarine waters of this estuary and adjacent Little Egg Harbor (Fig. 1. 2). Somewhat uniquely. this Reserve extends onto the inner continental shelf so as to include coastal waters that have a strong estuarine influence. These waters are extensively studied as part of the Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO-I5) in the vicinity of Beach Haven Ridge immediately outside Little Egg Harbor Inlet (von Alt and Grassle 1992, Glenn et al. 1996. \'On Alt et al. 1997). The Mullica River drainage includes five major sub-basins: the Batsto River. Atsion (or Mullica) Ri\·er. Sleeper Branch (or Mechesactauxin). Nescochague Creek, and Hammonton Creek. These join near the head of tidal influence near the town of Batsto. to form the mainstem Mullica Ri\·er. The Mullica continues downstream from Batsto for about 34 km to enter Great Bay. Along its course other smaller tributaries join with the major branches including the Wading and Bass ri \ ers. Some saltwater penetration occurs in the lower 2I km of the tidal mainstem portion of the \lullica (Fig. 2). Because the sandy soils in the Mullica River drainage are low in nutrients and soluble minerals. the surface waters are naturally low in nutrients. hardness, turbidity. and dissolved solids and pH is often low as well (Fig. 2). Downstream in the tidal portion of the system. water conditions are quite different as the riverine environment gradually becomes estuarine. \Vith increased salinity and also pH (Fig. 2). Great Bay and Little Egg Harbor are polyhaline and generally shallow (average depth at mean low water I. 7 m: Durand I984; Fig. I). These estuaries share many attributes with other estuaries in the \1iddle Atlantic Bight including a broad seasonal temperature range (Able et al. I992: Fig. 2). and moderate tidal range. from <0. 7 m in Little Egg Harbor to over 1.I m near the mouth of Great Bay (Chizmadia et al. I984; Durand I984 ). Dissolved oxygen is high overall in the mainstem of the system with lowest values in the summer (Fig. 2) but can be quite low in subtidal habitats such as marsh creeks (Szedlmayer and Able 1993) and marsh pools (Smith and Able in reviev.). Because the upper portion of the drainage basin is undeveloped the water entering Great Bay is relatively clean (Good and Good 1984). Much of the 283 km of estuarine shoreline in the lower portion of the drainage basin consists of extensive Spartina alterniflora marshes (Lathrop et al. in press). These estuaries are the site of long-term environmental measurements (Durand and Nadeau 1972. Durand 1988. Able et al. 1992). and are relatively unaltered. The National Littoral Laboratory in the vicinity of LE0-15 is centered around Beach Haven Ridge (Fig. 1). The ridge. which is representative of the abundant sand ridges along the east coast of the U.S. (McBride and Moslow 1991) is of Holocene age (Stahl et al. 1974) and extends northeastward from the ebb tidal delta of Little Egg Inlet (Twichell and Able 1993 ). It is about 1 km wide along its central and southern portions and broadens to 1.5 km at the northeastern end. It has a maximum relief of 8 m between the ridge crest and the trough on the seaward side and 4- 5 m relief between the ridge crest and the trough on the shoreward side. A sidescan sonar mosaic (Twichell and Able 1993) indicates that the surficial sediments are complex and heterogenous and range from fine silts overlaying occasionally exposed clays to sandy substrates with megaripples and large accumulations of surf clam (Spisula solidissima) shells. There are three water masses in the vicinity of the site. based on unpublished oceanographic observations prior to 1990 (S. Glenn. pers. comm.): 1) continental shelf waters of higher salinities (30-32%o): 2) coastal water with seasonally varying salinity (27 -31 %o): and 3) Mullica River-Great Bay estuary water with salinities lower than coastal water. The astronomical tide is semi-diurnaL with an average tidal range of 1.2 m. FISH FAlJNA The checklist is based on earlier extensive reviews of the fishes of New Jersey including checklists of saltwater fishes (Able 1992). their early life history stages (Fahay 1993) and subsequent studies in this estuary (Able and Fahay 1998). The freshwater fishes are based on an earlier checklist (Hastings 1984). Most recently our understanding of fishes in this estuary haw been enhanced by extensive collections by staff of the Rutgers University Marine Field Station. This current list includes 191 species in 74 families. The phylogeny and taxonomic treatments generally follow Robins et al. (1991) except where more recent treatments are reflected. Each species account begins \Vith the scientific name. author of that name, and currently used common name following (Robins et al. 1991 ). designation of general distribution (marine. estuarine. freshwater) and abundance (rare, occasionaL common. abundant), as well as pertinent literature citations for these designations. The fish fauna of this Middle Atlantic Bight estuary is typical of other estuaries in the region and has been the site of extensive sampling for early stages of f1shes during the last decade (Able and Fahay 1998). Several descriptions of specific aspects of the fish fauna within this system have been published. most focusing on young-of-the-year. These include fishes in vegetated habitats (Sogard and Able 1991. 1994 ). marsh creeks (Rountree and Able 1992. 1993 ). marsh pools (Smith 1995 ). inlet beaches (Haroski 1998), polyhaline shores (Able et al. 1996), seasonal andhabitat patterns of use (Szedlmayer and Able 1996). ichthyoplankton and pelagic juveniles collected near Little Egg Inlet (Witting et al. 1999). and larval and juvenile fishes of the adjacent 2 LE0-15 study site on the Beach Haven Ridge (K. W. Able and M.P. Fahay. unpubl. obsen .). The numerically dominant species are members of the families Engraulidae, Clupeidae. Fundulidae, Gobiidae, Syngnathidae. Atherinidae. and Sciaenidae. Seasonal and annual variation in abundance of many species is pronounced. Because our understanding of this group of diverse vertebrates is still developing. even \\ ithin this intensively studied estuarine system (see Able and Fahay 1998). there are undoubtedly errors or additions that can be made. Certain groups require further taxonomic work including the gerreids (mojarras), muraenids (morays). serranids (sea basses) and other tropical groups \\hich commonly occur in late summer. Rare or unusual specimens from this list have been deposited in the collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author welcomes any comments and suggestions. Earlier drafts benefitted from the assistance of Stacy Hagan and Angie Podlinski. Dorian McMillan helped to identify some of the holocentrids. This paper is Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Contribution No. 99-22 and Jacques Cousteau NERR Publication No. 99-101. 3 LITERATURE CITED Able, K. W. 1992. Checklist of New Jersey saltwater fishes. Bull. N.J. A cad. Sci. 3 7( 1 ): 1-11. Able, K.W. and M.P. Fahay. 1998. The First Year in the Life ofEstuarine Fishes in the Middle Atlantic Bight. Rutgers University Press. Able, K.W. and J.D. Felley. 1986. Geographical variation in Fundulus heteroclitus: Tests for concordance between egg and adult morphologies. Amer. Zoo!. 26:145-157. Able, K.W. and L.S. Hales. 1997. Movements of black sea bass Centropristis striata (Linnaeus) in a southern New Jersey estuary. J. Exp. Mar. Bio. Ecol. 213( 1997): 153-167. Able. K. W. and S.C. Kaiser. 1994. Synthesis of summer flounder habitat parameters. l'-:0.-\.\ Coastal Ocean Program Decision Analysis Series No. 1. NOAA Coastal Ocean Ot1ice. Silver Spring. MD. 68 pp+. Able, K. W .. R. Hoden, D.