Life history and susceptibility of fishes in Galveston Bay, Texas to power-plant cooling-water operations

Seasonal occurrence, abundance and susceptibility to cooling-water operations were determined for 89 species of fish occurring in intake and discharge canals of the P.H. Robinson Generating Station on Galveston Bay, Texas from February 1969 through March 1970. Biological data were collected twice weekly from one revolving-screen station (sampled at 0700, 1500 and 2200 hr.), 13 ichthyoplankton-net stations (six in the intake and seven in the discharge canal) and four trawl stations (two apiece in intake and discharge canals). Hydrological measurements including water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity-salinity, pH, water velocity and discharge flow rate were taken simultaneous to biological sampling. Six species including Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus), bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli), sea catfish (Arius felis), sand seatrout (Cynoscion arenarius), spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) and Atlantic croaker (Micropogon undulatus) comprised approximately 89% of the fish collected.