New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Spatio-temporal distribution of fish in the Kakanui River estuary, South
Island, New Zealand
D. J. JELLYMAN
G. J. GLOVA
P. M. SAGAR
J. R. E. SYKES
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 8602
Christchurch, New Zealand
Abstract The fish community of the Kakanui River estuary on
the east coast of the South Island, New Zealand, was studied seasonally over 1
year by diel seine netting and nocturnal fyke (trap) netting. Twenty species
were recorded, although nine of these together constituted 0.2% of the total
number of fish caught. Marine species were represented by single individuals of
four species. Brown trout (
Salmo trutta) and rainbow trout
(
Oncorhynchus mykiss) were the only species without an obligatory marine
life-history phase. Small benthic fishes, cockabullies (
Tripterygion
nigripenne), and common bullies (
Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the
numerically dominant species and, together with a further nine species, were
resident year-round. Winter was the season of lowest abundance of most species.
Spatial patterns of distribution were apparent with common bullies, giant
bullies (
G. gobioides), and longfinned eels (
Anguilla
dieffenbachii) occurring mainly in the upper estuary; common smelt
(
Retropinnna retropinna) mainly in the lower estuary; and cockabullies,
yelloweyed mullet (
Aldrichetta forsteri), and shortfinned eels
(
Anguilla australis) present throughout the estuary.
Keywords freshwater fish; estuary; community; diadromous
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1997: Vol. 31:
103-118
0028-8330/97/3101-0103 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1106K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
This year's abstracts |
Journal home page |
All abstracts |
Publishing home page
