A fish survey in a Marlborough Sounds estuary from 1971 to 1978

Eight species and 175 individual fish were sampled from a small estuary in Tennyson Inlet, Marlborough Sounds from 1971 to 1978 by a 27.4 m set net of 12.4 cm stretched mesh size. During the sample period there was a consistent significant decline in both total number and total weight of fish per tide. Similar significant declines in both numbers and mean weight per fish occurred from the 1971–74 to 1975–78 periods for all species that had sufficient numbers to be tested for significance (dogfish, mullet, snapper, kahawai and warehou), but inadequate data for mullet and warehou prevented a test of weight decline for the 1975–78 period. Since these species range over a wide area of coastal habitats, it is conjectured that their declines reflect regional as well as local factors.