The ecology of eelgrass meadows in the Pacific Northwest: A ...

Figure 16. Pycnopodia helianthoides in eelgrass meadow in Puget Sound
attempting to extract a clam out of the bottcm.
a. juvenile and subadult states: sea
bass, rock fishes, alterids, yerreids, sea
breams, groupers, and greenlings; b.
residents in spawning season: squid,
portunid crabs, and some shrimps; (3)
transients: puffers; (4) casual species.
He noted that some of the seasonal
residents were commercially important,
especially in the jwenile stage (Kikuchi
1980). For commercially valuable inshore
and affshore fish species, the eelgrass
meadow is most important in the juvenile
stage in providing food and shelter; i.e.,
in providing a nursery for their
developnent .
In North Carolina, Adams (1976a,b)
reported that fishes in eelgrass were
characterized by low diversity (39
species) and high standing crops of
biomass and energy, both of which showed
seasonal variation. Winter stocks
(~ecember-~pril) averaged about 15% as
high as durirng May-~ovember, a function of
water temperature. He also reported that
stocks at night were twice as high as
during the day. Fish did not feed in the
eelgrass at night. Interestingly, Adalns
(1976b) noted that the feeding
relationship of certain species changed
with the developmental stage. The general
trend for the pin£ ish, which dominated the
biomass of the fish community (45% and 67%
in two systems), was that copepods were
used first, then eelgrass detritus, and
finally an omnivorous stage was reached
where plychaetes and plant material were
used.
Orth and Heck (1980) reported a different
fish community in eelgrass of the
Chesapeake Bay (48 species), but noted
similarlties in seasonal abundances. They
noted that the number of fish species
associated with eelgrass was dramatically
higher than nearby unvegetated substrates.
This was also reported by Briggs and
O'Connor (1971) in New York and by Kikuchi
(1974) in Japan. In all of these eelgrass
beds many species were important food and
game fish. In New York, 38 species were
collected in eelgrass 117 preferring