Distribution Shifts Associated with Changing Environmental Parameters in Two Demersal Species Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) and Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata)

Shifts in fish population distributions are a growing concern for fishermen and fisheries management scientists. Temperature has been implicated as the main driver of poleward distributional shifts in many marine fishery... [ view full abstract ]

Shifts in fish population distributions are a growing concern for fishermen and fisheries management scientists. Temperature has been implicated as the main driver of poleward distributional shifts in many marine fishery stocks, including two abundant and commercially valuable fish along the Northeast US coastline: summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) and black sea bass (Centropristis striata). Besides temperature, drivers may be different for different age and size classes within a species. Juveniles may select for different aspects of their environments and may be found at a wider and warmer range than have been experimentally found to support positive growth in adult conspecifics. This study will use fishery-independent Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) bottom trawl survey data to develop cumulative distribution functions, generalized additive model based habitat suitability models, and projections over Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) datasets to determine what parameters (surface and bottom temperature and salinity, depth, and bottom type) are selected for and influence distribution in different length classes in winter, spring, and fall. We will also assess whether these factors change the availability of these fish to the NEFSC bottom trawl survey in such a way that impacts estimates of stratified-mean biomass and abundance.