Abstract
Trawl surveys in the estuary of the River Medway in the autumns of 1987–1991 have shown that the distribution of juvenile sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax is strongly associated with the warm‐water outflow from Kingsnorth power station. In years of low abundance of first‐year bass, very few were caught outside the warm‐water discharge channel, whereas proportionately more fish of abundant year classes occupied the main river. About 15% of the available juvenile bass population died on the cooling‐water intake screens at Kingsworth in the autumn and winter of 1987 and 1988. However, growth and survival of first‐year bass in the Medway Estuary may be enhanced by the power station's warm‐water effluent, such that overwinter mortality due to inadequate nutritional reserves and low temperatures may be considerably reduced.