The efficiencies and effectiveness of a 220‐volt, AC electroshocker and seines for making quantitative fish collections under low‐flow conditions were compared in Piedmont streams of Maryland. Collections were made in 10 stream sections sampled on different days by both gears. Population estimates were made by the removal method using a linear‐regression technique and three successive runs. The electroshocker produced better and more consistent results than seines, gave a larger number of significant regression estimates, caught more fish by total weight, and caught larger fish. The mean catchabilities for numbers of fish caught were 0.69 for electroshocker and 0.43 for seines.

Monthly abundance (CPUE) of larval anchovy in the coastal waters off south‐western Taiwan from 1980 to 1992 (156 months) fluctuated at intervals corresponding to the 4.3‐ and 2.2‐year cycles of the southern oscillation index (SOI). Also, CPUE was significantly correlated with sea surface temperature with a time lag of 3 months and nearly significantly to river flow with a time lag of 4 months, which in turn correlated with SOI at lags of 13–14 months (cross‐correlation and transfer function analyses). The results suggested the presence of linkage between recruitment of the larvae and ENSO episodes, perhaps through oceanographic and meteorological conditions that affect coastal upwelling and river discharge. The Kuroshio Current, which is the western extension of the North Equatorial Current, may be one of the important mechanisms of ENSO's teleconnections affecting local climate and fisheries in the western Pacific region.

Sampling efficiency of two oyster fishing gears, patent tongs and an oyster dredge, were compared in reference to diver‐harvested quadrats in Chesapeake Bay, which supports important harvests of eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica. Mean densities of spat (≤35 mm), small oysters (>35 mm to 75 mm), marketable oysters (>75 mm), and all oysters (three size‐groups combined) estimated from patent tong samples were not significantly different from those derived from diver‐harvested quadrat samples. In contrast, the densities estimated from dredge samples were low, only 2–32% of the diver estimates. Accordingly, patent tongs are recommended as the sampling gear for estimating eastern oyster stock abundance in the Maryland portion of Chesapeake Bay.

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