TEMPORAL PATTERNS IN THE LARVAL SUPPLY OF SUMMER-RECRUITING REEF FISHES TO LEE-STOCKING ISLAND, BAHAMAS

Moored plankton nets were used to monitor the supply of settlement-sta ge reef fishes to benthic habitats on Great Bahamas Bank in the vicini ty of Lee Stocking Island, Exuma Sound, Bahamas. A total of 55 771 fis hes, representing 53 taxa, were captured in 79 d of sampling from June to September 1992. Reef fish larvae were extremely abundant in the sa mples, particularly the families Labridae, Apogonidae, Balistidae, Oph ichthidae and Scaridae. Almost all fish were taken in night collection s, and discrete tide sampling suggested most settlement-stage fishes w ere moving onshore during flood tides. Vertical distributions were tax on specific, with some taxa concentrated in surface nets while others were more abundant in mid-water collections. Larval supply of a number of taxa occurred almost entirely during several days around the new m oon in early July, while other families showed more consistent, althou gh still episodic, replenishment patterns. Time series analysis found evidence of semi-lunar cycling in the larval supply of scarids and oph ichthids, lunar cycling in gobiids, bothids and apogonids, and acyclic replenishment in clupeids, blennioids, labrids and balistids. Crossco rrelations between larval supply and meteorological and hydrographic v ariables found significant associations in the families Gobiidae, Apog onidae, Blennioidei and Labridae. Significant correlations were driven by a large pulse of replenishment of all these taxa coinciding with a relaxation of southeast trade winds. This event apparently caused a r eversal in the direction of longshore currents and generated significa nt onshore current flow. Settlement-stage larvae may have been transpo rted from the northern region of Exuma Sound to Lee Stocking Island. A lternatively, larvae may have been entrained from offshore waters in t he southern Sound and advected across the shelf to reef areas.