NOAA Fisheries
Service
Galveston
Laboratory
4700 Avenue U
Galveston, TX
77551-5997
409.766.3500
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PIs: Jim Ditty, Scott
Holt*, Jeff Matthews and Tom Minello. Renewed interest in the assessments of densities of larval and postlarval fish, shrimp, and crabs that live in coastal and pass waters in Texas has been stimulated by proposed estuarine sighting of LNG gasification plants and by needed forecasting models for Texas shrimp harvests. Zooplankton collections were made at Aransas Pass along the mid-coast and at Bolivar Roads along the upper-coast during 2004 and 2005. Daily collections were made of flood tides at the UTMSI pier in the Aransas Pass at Port Aransas, and triplicate tows were made both in and outside the ship channel at Bolivar Roads near Galveston, at approximately monthly intervals and also during flood tides. Samples are being analyzed for species composition and for densities of planktonic stages of fishes, penaeid shrimp, and blue crabs. Research continues on estimating variability in abundance of postlarval penaeid shrimp immigrating into Galveston Bay. Past work by NMFS (BCF) Galveston Lab scientists supports a “Spring Peak” for postlarval (PL) brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus, at the start of April.
We also found considerable fluctuations in abundance based on shoreline samples that indicated location and timing of sampling effort are very important factors to consider in forming a sampling regimen.
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