Analysis of fishery resources : potential risk from sewage sludge dumping at the deepwater dumpsite off New Jersey

Sandy Hook Laboratory. Northeast Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service. NOAA Highlands. New Jersey 07732 Analysis of fishery resources: potential risk from sewage sludge dumping at the deepwater dumpsite off New Jersey Abstract.-Analytical and statistical procedures were applied to bottom trawl survey data in tests of hypotheses about potential effects of sewage sludge dumping at a 106mile dumpsite l106-MDSl off New Jersey on fishery resources assessed on the continental shelf and upper slope. Sludge dumping, even in deep ocean waters. was not discounted as one of several ecological and environmental perturbations influencing these resources measured as temporal, spatial, and seasonal differences in abundance. Species abundances of silver and red hakes IMerluccius bilinearis and Urophycis chuss l, summer flounder lParalichthys dentatus), goosefish ILophius americanus), and black sea bass lCentropristis striata l declined significantly over temporal and spatial scales during the disposal of contaminantladen sewage sludge at the deepwater 106-MDS. There was also a decline in the array of all aggregated species. but to a lesser degree. Results of these analyses of assessment data are considered in relation to effects of ocean dumping in shallow waters at the southern California sewage outfalls and in the New York Bight apex, and in relation to increased contamination of the ecosystem around the l06-MDS. Further. large-scale coordination of environmental research surveys with fishery resource assessments would allow tests of more specific hypotheses and allow a more definitive interpretation of offshore resource population data as presented here.