Seasonal Change in Thermal Tolerance of Common Estuarine Crustaceans

Abstract

The common estuarine crustaceans (Palaemonetes pugio, P. vulgaris, Penaeus setiferus, P. aztecus, and Callinectes sapidus), collected in the intake canal of the P. H. Robinson Generating Station, Bacliff, Texas, were tested for 180 minutes at various discharge canal temperatures during June 1974 through September 1975 to determine if they could survive passage through a discharge cooling system.
Three-h LD⁵⁰ temperatures were singnifcantly higher, throughout the year, than the temperatures in the discharge canal downstream from the coloing towers, indicating that crustaceans should survive passage to Galveston Bay. However, they have survival problems during June-September in the discharge canal above the cooling towers.