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In this study, we applied systematic adaptive cluster sampling (SACS) to assess the abundance of black sea bass Centropristis striata on hard bottom habitats in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MBA; USA). We used a remote underwater video system to obtain video recordings of black sea bass from 25 June to 6 August 2013 within a 25-square nautical mile (nmi) sampling region. Data in the form of fish counts were collected from video recordings and used to estimate parameters including sample means and population totals of black sea bass for two adaptive cluster sampling estimators and a single systematic sampling estimator. The precision and relative efficiencies of the parameter estimates were also calculated and compared. In total, two adaptive cluster samples were encountered within the sampling region. Sample means and population totals were largest for the systematic sampling (SS) estimator while the adaptive sampling estimators produced parameter estimates with the lowest variances and highest precision. Our results indicated that SACS was more efficient and advantageous with respect to sampling costs [i.e., sampling time (hours) and travel distance (kilometers)] than SS alone for assessing the abundance of clustered populations of C. striata on hard bottom habitats in the MBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments were conducted to determine the acute tolerance of juvenile (mean weight ± standard error, 9.9 ± 0.9 g) black sea bass Centropristis striata to environmental un-ionized ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) and nitrite-nitrogen (NO2-N) exposure at various salinities. Specifically, median lethal concentrations (LC50 values) of NH3-N and NO2-N at 24, 48 and 96 h of exposure were determined at salinities of 10, 20 and 30 g/L at 22°C. With the exception of LC50 values determined at 48 h, median lethal concentrations of NH3-N to black sea bass were not influenced by environmental salinity; 24, 48, and 96 h LC50 values ranged from 0.81 to 0.85, 0.65-0.77, and 0.46-0.54 mg-NH3-N/L, respectively. In contrast, tolerance of black sea bass to environmental NO2-N was compromised at reduced salinities. Median lethal concentrations of NO2-N to fish at 24, 48 and 96 h of exposure ranged from 288.3 to 429.0, 258.4 to 358.8 and 190.0 to 241.9 mg-NO2-N/L, respectively. Results indicate that while juvenile black sea bass are relatively sensitive to acute NH3-N exposure, they are highly resistant to NO2-N exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction is presented for the article "Application of systematic adaptive cluster sampling for the assessment of black sea bass Centropristis striata abundance."