Excerpt from Distribution and Abundance of Fishes and Invertebrates in Central Gulf of Mexico Estuaries: May 1991 In June 1985, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) began a program to develop a comprehensive information base on the life history, relative abundance and distribution of fishes and invertebrates in estuaries throughout the Nation (Monaco 1986). The Estuarine Living Marine Resources (Elmr) program is conducted jointly by the Strategic Environmental Assessments (Sea) Division of the Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (Orca) and laboratories of the National Marine Fisheries Service (Nmfs). Currently, the R.Adams (Hammond), Or; Galveston, Tx; Beaufort, Nc; and Oxford, MD laboratories are compiling information forthe contiguous West Coast, Gulf of Mexico, Southeast, and Northeast regions. Additional data for the Northeast are being compiled by the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. To date, the program has compiled data for 115 species found in 83 estuaries. Seven reports are available free upon request (see below). Three salinity zones as defined in Volume 1 of Noaa's National Estuarine Inventory Data Atlas (Noaa 1985) provided the spatial framework for organizing information on species distribution and abundance within each estuary. These salinity zones are tidal fresh(0.0 to 0.5 ppt), mixing(0.5 to 25 ppt), and seawater( 25 ppt). The primary data developed for each species include spatial distribution by salinity zone, temporal distribution by month, and relative abundance by life stage, e.g., adult, spawning, juvenile, larva, and egg. In addition, a detailed estuarine life history summary is written for each species. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.