Relative abundance, seasonal distribution, and species composition of demersal fishes off Louisiana and Texas 1962-1964.

Demersal fishes were collected monthly with a shrimp trawl at 33 to 60 stations in 7 to 110 (4-60 fath) between the Mississippi River Delta and the United States-Mexico border from 1962-1964. Cathches were generally two to five times greater off Louisiana than off Texas, with the greatest differences occurring in the shallowest waters. Differences in total catches between stations within each depth off Texas and Louisiana, between day and night tows, and between years generally were not significant. Seasonal differences in catches were great off each coast. Atlantic croaker, Micropogon undulatus, and longspine porgy, Stenotomus caprinus, constituted nearly half of the total catch. Atlantic croaker, longspine porgy, sand seatrout, Cynoscion arenarius, and sea catfish, Geleichthys felis, were most abundent off Louisiana; longspine porgy, Atlantic croaker, inshore lizardfish, Synodus foetens, and silver seatrout, Cynoscion nothus, dominated the catches off Texas.