Abstract
In order to elucidate the food availability for fish larvae such as walleye pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, flathead flounder, Hippoglossoides dubius, abundantly inhabiting the surface layer in winter, copepod nauplii were collected at a depth of 15m from January to March 1991 in Funka Bay and surrounding vicinity. Body width of copepod nauplii ranged from 40 to 322 μm. Many nauplii (64.8%) passed through a 100 μm mesh sieve, especially for copepod nauplii smaller than 100 μm (89.6%). From January to March, Oithona nauplii were abundant (2.14-13.52 indiv./l), accounting for 53.6-91.0% of total copepod nauplii except at the mouth of the bay in March (25.9%). The width of Oithona nauplii ranged from 40 to 178 μm and 75.2% were smaller than 100 pm. Most nauplii (<100 μm, 90.4%) passed through a 100 μm mesh sieve. Numbers of Pseudocalanus & Metridia nauplii were small in January (0.66-0.97 indiv./l), then increased in March to a maximum density of 4.57 indiv./l at the mouth of the bay. The width of Pseudocalanus & Metridia nauplii ranged from 79 to 195 μm and 90.2% were larger than 100 μm. Most of them (>100 μm, 82.8%) were obtained with a 100 μm mesh sieve.
