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	Home Upcoming Events Institutions & Organizations People Bays & Estuaries Reefs, Banks & Islands Environmental Issues General Facts about the Gulf Exploration History Other Online Resources Electronic Books Mexican Coral Reef Species Checklist InfoHub Site Search:		Recruitment Patterns of Early Juvenile Red Drum, Sciaenops ocellatus Source: http://galveston.ssp.nmfs.gov (13 May, 2004) Red drum occur in the Western Atlantic and throughout the Gulf of Mexico, and support an important recreational fishery. Red drum spawn in early fall near passes and inlets, where eggs, larvae and early juveniles are carried by currents into shallow estuaries and bays. Following a short pelagic stage, individuals often settle into seagrass habitats. Due to various anthropogenic effects, many estuarine areas have suffered extensive loss of seagrasses, such as the losses observed in the Galveston Bay system, on the Texas Gulf Coast, since the 1970's. Nevertheless, Galveston Bay, as well as many other areas lacking seagrass cover, support large populations of red drum. In the absence of seagrass, it is unclear which habitats are used by newly recruited red drum. Determining the details of habitat use is critical to understanding recruitment and population dynamics of this important estuarine dependent species. This project has the objective to examine and define potential nursery habitats, such as marsh, non-vegetated bottom, tidal creeks and oyster reefs, for red drum in Galveston Bay. Sampling during the fall recruitment period in these habitats using a drop sampler and epi-benthic sleds, has shown that the highest densities of red drum occur in seagrass meadows. However, when seagrass is absent, we find the highest densities of red drum along the marsh-edge interface. Experiments have been designed to characterize the structure and function of potential nursery habitats in terms of habitat selection, growth and mortality rates. Principal Investigator(s) or Program Chair: Stunz, Greg Thomas Minello Sponsor(s): National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Institution(s): National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Field of Focus: Red drum recruitment Study Site:   Galveston Bay Home Page:   http://galveston.ssp.nmfs.gov/research/fisheryecology/recentresearch/recruit/index.html E-mail:   greg.stunz@tamucc.edu Keywords:   Red drum, Recruitment, Juvenile fish, Seagrass, Nursery habitat
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GulfBase is a project of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. To give proper credit to the original authors, please cite information taken from GulfBase by the original source as displayed. To cite GulfBase, use: M. Nipper, J.A. Sánchez Chávez, and J.W. Tunnell, Jr., Editors. 2010. GulfBase: Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.gulfbase.org, 29 July 2010.

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