Iwona Psuty-Lipska
Sea Fisheries Institute, Kołłątaja 1, 81-332 Gdynia, Poland

Key words: Baltic Sea, Gdańsk Bay, fish assemblages, community composition, multivariate analysis

Abstract.
The results of experimental fish catches using a benthic trawl in the Gulf of Gdańsk in 1985-1999 were analyzed using multivariate statistical methods. These analyses provided the basis for discerning two stable benthic fish assemblages which, on a regional scale, are characteristic of the Gulf of Gdańsk. The ranges of occurrence of the assemblages varied and intersected. Geography occurred to be more influential with regard to assemblage location than depth was. The analysis of the multivariate structure of the collected material was facilitated by applying several statistical techniques simultaneously. This also limited the choice of the subjective criteria used while interpreting the results of particular methods.