Summer habitat affinities of estuarine fish in US mid-Atlantic coastal systems

Fisheries management strategies based on habitat protection require definitive assessment of fish habitat affinities, but most habitat association information is based on disparate data from multiple sampling strategies. Habitat affinities were quantitatively defined using consistently collected data with a 16‐m high‐rise otter trawl at 314 Virginian Province (US) sites from 1990 to 1993. Catch rates and field‐recorded salinity, depth, sea bed type, and geography (coastal system) associated with each trawl were analysed. Habitat affinity was quantified by comparing the concentration of fish in a particular habitat with the prevalence of that habitat. Fishes exhibited a specific habitat affinity even though they occurred across a range of environmental gradients. Fish were most associated with salinity (14 of 19 species/life‐stage groups had a significant affinity for at least one salinity zone). Three‐quarters of the flatfish displayed an affinity for a selected sea bed type; the same percentage of sciaenids had an affinity for a particular salinity zone.