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Issues: Oceans

Priority Ocean Areas for Protection in the Mid-Atlantic
Findings of NRDC's Marine Habitat Workshop

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Individual Recommendations
Rom Lipcius

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POLYGON RL1 (Chesapeake Bay)

Rationale: nursery/spawning area
Seasons and depths important for protection: year-round; pelagic

These nearshore areas are critical nursery areas for crab larvae (for example, blue and fiddler) and also are valuable fish spawning grounds (for summer flounder, menhaden, croaker, spot, and weakfish).

POLYGON RL2 (Oregon Inlet)

POLYGON RL3 (Delaware Bay)

POLYGON RL4 (New York Harbor)

REFERENCES

Epifanio, C.E. 1988. Dispersal Strategies of Two Species of Swimming Crab on the Continental Shelf Adjacent to Delaware Bay. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 49: 243–48.

Epifanio, C.E. 1995. Transport of Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus) Larvae in the Waters off Mid-Atlantic States. Bull. Mar. Sci. 57: 713–25.

Johnson, D.R. and B.S. Hester. 1989. Larval Transport and Its Association with Recruitment of Blue Crabs to Chesapeake Bay. Est. Coast. Shelf Sci. 28: 459–72.

McConaugha, J.R., D.F. Johnson, A.J. Provenzano and R.C. Maris. 1983. Seasonal Distribution of Larvae of Callinectes sapidus (Crustacea: Decapoda) in the Waters Adjacent to Chesapeake Bay. J. Crust. Biol. 3: 582–91.

Mense, D.J., M.H. Posey, T. West and K. Kincheloe. 1995. Settlement of Brachyuran Postlarvae Along the North Carolina Coast. Bull. Mar. Sci. 57: 793–806.

Rowe, P.M. and C.E. Epifanio. 1994. Flux and Transport of Weakfish Larvae in Delaware Bay. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 110: 115–20

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