ONSHORE TRANSPORT OF SETTLEMENT-STAGE NASSAU GROUPER EPINEPHELUS-STRIATUS AND OTHER FISHES IN EXUMA SOUND, BAHAMAS

The movement of settlement-stage fishes from the pelagic environment o f Exuma Sound, Bahamas, to shallow nursery areas on the Great Bahamas Bank was monitored for 75 d during winter 1990-1991. Fishes were colle cted with channel nets suspended in tidal passes between islands on th e edge of Exuma Sound. Large-scale movement of fishes through the chan nels was restricted to flood tides that occurred during dark, moonless times of the night; very little movement was observed during the day, on ebb tides, or on moonlit nights. Many of the dominant taxa (e.g. l eptocephali, Bothidae) recruited on dark nights throughout the study p eriod, with peak onshore movement on nights when winds and currents ha d strong cross-shelf components of motion. Other taxa had very short, discrete recruitment pulses associated with specific environmental eve nts; 86 % of the total annual recruitment of Nassau grouper Epinephelu s striatus occurred during a single 4 d storm that triggered extensive cross-shelf movement of water, while another 10 % of the recruitment occurred during a second storm event. This reliance on unpredictable s torm events to drive local recruitment suggests that short-term variab ility in wind-driven currents is a possible mechanism behind the signi ficant interannual variability of many fish species.