Answer: Yes. Abundance surveys of finfish, like game fish and forage fish, show that the Sound is a rich feeding ground and estuary for fish populations. However, well documented environmental changes like increasing annual water temperatures resulted in a community shift in Long Island Sound from “cold-adapted” to “warm-adapted” species in the Sound.
Abundance of finfish as the geometric mean of weight (biomass) and count per tow from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Long Island Sound Trawl Survey (LISTS). See the data notes at the bottom of the page to learn more about the geometric mean.
Finfish populations are affected by many factors. Some of these factors are changes in environmental variables, commercial and recreational fishery regulations adopted to prevent overfishing and sustain healthy fish stocks, as well as habitat restoration and protection efforts by the states of Connecticut and New York.
Tracking population stability of Long Island Sound finfish can be an indicator of the Partnership’s efforts to protect and enhance the health of offshore habitats and their associated species for the Offshore Habitat objective. The Partnership tracks population stability with two metrics: Finfish Species Richness and the Finfish Biomass Index.
Finfish Species Richness measures the diversity of fish species supported within the Sound’s diverse habitats. The stable number of species per tow, regardless of changing environmental factors, indicate that the Sound is healthy and is able to support a strong balance of species that utilize various habitat types and food sources available throughout Long Island Sound.
The Finfish Biomass Index is an indicator of fisheries productivity in Long Island Sound. Although the Finfish Biomass Index has fluctuated over the past 30 years, there is a slight increasing trend in biomass through the time series. Notably, during 2023 and 2024 finfish biomass ranked second and fifth highest respectively over the time series. This stability indicates that while the abundance of individual species may have increased or decreased, the estuary overall has remained healthy for finfish production.
The forage fish and game fish indices are types of indicators that provide the Partnership with more specific details about the health of the Sound’s fish populations.
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A common term to clarify fish as separate from other aquatic life who have ‘fish’ in their names, like shellfish or jellyfish.