FISH USE OF AN INUNDATED SALT-MARSH FLAT IN A TEMPERATE AUSTRALIAN ESTUARY

Fish associated with Australian saltmarshes have previously been sampl ed from within creeks or semi-permanent pools on the marsh; this is th e first record of fish use of marsh flats inundated on high tides but emergent on low tides. Buoyant pop nets (9 m(2), 1 mm mesh) were used to collect fish from two areas of the marsh flat on Torrens Island in the Barker Inlet-Port River estuary, South Australia. Fyke nets of the same mesh size were used to collect fish from small creeks draining t he marsh flat. Fish were caught in only four of 48 pop net releases, f or a total of 19 fish of two species (families Gobiidae and Atherinida e). A total of 1109 fish from six species were caught in creeks draini ng the same areas, and the two species caught on the flats were the mo st common species in the creeks. Economically important species were p oorly represented, with just four specimens of the mugilid Aldrichetta forsteri (Valenciennes).