Ichthyoplankton Associated with a Warm Core Ring off the Scotiars Shelf

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Abstract
A warm core ring and adjacent waters off the Scotian Shelf in June 1982 contained substantial numbers of larval and juvenile white hake, Urophycis tenuis, as far as 140 km seaward of the continental shelf break. The warm core ring, designated 81-G, had entrained shelf water on several occasions before the shipboard observations were made. We suggest that the ring contributed to the offshore advection of these fish, which probably were spawned on the continental shelf or upper slope. Warm core rings can disrupt the usual larval drift pattern of shelf–slope fishes and thereby affect recruitment. Larvae and juveniles of several species of tropical–subtropical fishes found in ring 81-G have been reported previously as rare specimens in ichthyoplankton surveys on the Scotian Shelf. Our observations support the hypothesis that warm core rings can be a mechanism for transport of these expatriated fishes onto the shelf.