The South Atlantic Bight Recruitment Experiment: introduction and overview PETER B. ORTNER, 1 LARRY B. CROWDER 2 AND DONALD E. HOSS 3 1 Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA, Miami, FL 33176, USA 2 Nicholas School of the Environment and Department of Zoology, Duke University Marine Laboratory, 135 Duke Marine Lab Road, Beaufort, NC 28516-9721, USA 3 NOAA National Ocean Service, Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, 101 Pivers Island Road, Beaufort, NC 28516-9722, USA ABSTRACT The South Atlantic Bight Recruitment Experiment (SABRE) brought together a interdisciplinary team of scientists to conduct research to enhance our under- standing of the relationship between variation in environmental factors and the variable recruitment of `estuarine dependent' fishes within the SAB. The project sought to develop a new fusion of government and academic scientists, each possessing unique skills, to address the difficult problem of recruitment varia- bility in fishes. This fusion required the development of appropriate and at that time novel management and administrative strategies. SABRE initially focused on recruitment dynamics of Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, in the South Atlantic Bight, but expanded over time to include several estuarine-dependent species and much of the Middle Atlantic Bight as well. The project was conducted from 1991 to 1997 and resulted in a substantial improvement in our under- standing of the life history and ecology of Atlantic menhaden and the potential constraints upon its recruitment. SABRE also contributed to our under- standing of the physical oceanography of the western North Atlantic shelf and adjacent coastal inlets and the implications of physical dynamics upon the potential pathways for larval transport. Key words: fisheries oceanography, recruitment INTRODUCTION In 1991 NOAA's Coastal Ocean Program initiated funding for an interdisciplinary Coastal Fisheries Ecosystem Project, the South Atlantic Bight Recruit- ment Experiment (SABRE, Hoss et al., 1991). The study focused upon fishes that occupy the coastal waters of the Carolinas north of Cape Canaveral and south of Cape Hatteras ± the South Atlantic Bight (SAB). The long-term goal of SABRE was to understand the relationship between variation in environmental factors and the variable recruitment of `estuarine-dependent' fishes within the SAB (Hoss et al., 1991). Such fishes spawn offshore and are transported as larvae into estuarine nursery areas where they spend their juvenile period. The juveniles eventually move out of the estuary into the waters of the continental shelf where they mature and join the adult population. This life history pattern is typical of many of the commercially and recreationally important fish and shellfish species along both the East and Gulf coasts of the USA that have comparatively broad continental shelves. The conceptual approach guiding SABRE (a focus upon the unique characteristics of individual survivors rather than on estimating mortality at the population level as a complement to the classical life history table approach), as well as its programmatic context, were discussed in considerable detail in the NOAA Recruit- ment Fisheries Oceanography programme development Plan (Crowder et al ., 1989; Fritz et al ., 1990) and again in the prospectus on Coastal Fisheries Ecosystems: FY1991 (COP, 1990). These followed more a decade of intensive discussion amongst US fisheries managers and the scientific community regarding the importance of under- standing recruitment to future success in fisheries manage- ment (Steele et al ., 1980; Rothschild and Rooth, 1982; NRC, 1987). This dialogue resulted in a series of large- scale interdisciplinary oceanographic programs including Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics and Coupling (GLOBEC) (see National Research Council, 1999; Joint Oceanographic Institutions, 1987). Within NOAA the same dialogue resulted in the Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI), a study of walleye pollock recruitment in the Shelikof Strait, Alaska (Kendall et al ., 1996) and the Coastal Ocean Program's Coastal Fisheries Ecosystem programme that from 1991 to 1997 included SABRE. FISHERIES OCEANOGRAPHY Fish. Oceanogr. 8(Suppl. 2), 1±6, 1999 1999 Blackwell Science Ltd. 1 Correspondence: P. B. Ortner, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA, Miami, FL 33176, USA. Received for publication 30 June 1999 Accepted for publication 15 July 1999 Copyright remains the property of the US government. Ahed Bhed Ched Dhed Ref marker Fig marker Table marker Ref end Ref start Paper 31 Disc