Size distribution of fishes in a Texas estuary.

Analyses by histograms size distribution of croakers (Micropogon undulatus) and spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) caught by trawl in summers of 1954 (before Rollover Pass was cut through at upper end), 1955 (with pass open), and 1956 (with pass partly closed), in East Bay, Texas. As pointed out by Gunter (1945), sizes decrease going from high to low salinity, as a rule. This may be due to abundance of food or to later juveniles entering a bay leapfrogging over earlier entrants and, thus, younger individuals being farther up the bay. Three charts in Fig. 1 show salinity patterns in East Bay in 1954, 1955, and 1956.