TRANSITORY HYDROGRAPHIC STRUCTURES AND DISTRIBUTION OF FISH LARVAE AND NEUSTONIC CRUSTACEANS IN THE NORTHWESTERN MEDITERRANEAN

A hydrographic and zooplankton survey (neuston and water column) was p erformed over the Blanes submarine canyon (western Mediterranean) in J une 1993. Abundance of fish and crab larvae was very low when compared with previous studies conducted in the same area. The horizontal dist ribution of fish and crab larvae whose adults inhabit the continental shelf was restricted to the coast. The offshore occurrence of low-sali nity waters of continental origin, together with the absence of a comp onent perpendicular to the coast in the system of currents observed th roughout the study area, support the observed pattern of distribution. The occurrence of mesopelagic fish larvae and of the oceanic neustoni c isopod Idotea metallica in some coastal stations may be associated w ith episodic inshore-offshore exchanges of water masses identified by drifting buoy trajectories. (C) Elsevier, Paris.