Effect of borrow pits on the abundance and distribution of fishes in the Lower Bay of New York Harbor

Abstract

from the abstract, "A finfish survey was done on a monthly basis by trawling at three sites in the Lower Bay of New York Harbor. Two of these sites were within borrow pits that had been excavated in the bay floor by subaqueous sand mining operations and one of these was a control site on a nearby sandy shoal that was probably typical of the original pre-mined habitat. The gut contents of winter flounder at each site were also examined. Both the abundance of fishes and the diet of winter flounder were similar at the two pit sites, but differed at the shoal site. Fish catches on the sandy shoal were lower than at the borrow pit sites. Temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and benthic food sources were considered, but none of these parameters alone seemed to control the fish populations in the pits. Since both the pit sites had muddy bottoms while the shoal site had a sandy bottom, substrate characteristics may explain why the catches at the pit sites were similar and generally higher than catches at the shoal site."