Eight scientific staff of the Western Australian and Northern Territory Museums completed a survey of 37 marine, five freshwater and two terrestrial stations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Habitats were sampled for a variety of invertebrate taxa and for fish. This report includes species inventories for most of the taxa sampled. More than 170 species of hard corals, 82 species of echinoderms, 317 species of molluscs, 139 species of decapod crustaceans, 49 species of barnacles, 67 species and higher taxa of polychaete worms and 324 species of fishes were recorded. The Kimberley has quite a high diversity of marine habitats which are dominated by the effects of strong tidal currents and high turbidity resulting in a relatively low faunal diversity. Comments are included on future management options for Kimberley marine ecosystems.

The major gap in the surveys of the shallow water marine fauna of Western Australia is the Kimberley region. The Kimberley is a vast expanse of land in the northeastern corner of Western Australia, the closest point of which is some 2600 km from Perth by air. The area is sparsely inhabited and there are few roads. Access to the coast is largely by sea. The coastal towns of Derby and Wyndham in the Kimberley are small, with less than five thousand people each, and are separated by a distance of over 2000 km along the coast; there are no coastal settlements between Derby and Wyndham. The marine invertebrate fauna of the Kimberleys is virtually unknown. In 1976 the Western Australian Museum and Field Museum of Natural History mounted a major expedition to the Kimberley which was centered on the Mitchell Plateau-Admiralty Gulf area, one of the few coastal localities accessible from shore. The work undertaken was primarily terrestrial (Anon, 1981) but included two studies of marine molluscs (Wells, 1981; Wells and Slack-Smith, 1981). The Admiralty Gulf area is thus the only part of the Kimberley from which any substantial marine invertebrate collections have been made, and these are restricted to molluscs. The second goal of the 1988 expedition was thus to survey the marine invertebrate fauna of the Kimberleys to obtain specimens for the permanent collections. A subsidiary goal was to develop a knowledge of working in this remote area with a view to selecting areas for future work if funding and a vessel can be obtained.

This report describes the results of the third and final expedition to the Kimberley to document the marine flora and fauna of the area. The expedition took place in November-December 1996 with the assistance of a grant from the National Estates Grant Program. Twenty-four stations were examined. Detailed notes are presented on the station locations and habitat types present. At each station algae, seagrasses, molluscs, fish, crustacea and corals were collected and notes were made on the few mangroves observed in this area. 3.Five areas of particular significance were found. These were: - Station 5, Hedley Island - coral pools, fish, algae and general diversity. - Station 11, Low Water, East Montelivet - extensive coral/coralline reef flat with high diversity coral cover. Large pools, with spectacular coral cover and fish. - Station 13, East side, Cassini Island - geomorphology and coral cover. Station 21, Wild Cat Reefs, eastern reef, west side - high algal diversity. - Station 22, The Breakwater, Montgomery Reef - special reef. This report provides an extensive section outlining the coastal geomorphology of the central Kimberley. There have been no published records of the marine algae which occur in the Kimberley. This report provides details of ca. seventy species collected during the expedition. Coralline algae are poorly known and species in this group are currently being worked on taxonomically. One hundred and forty four species of scleractinian corals, 292 species of molluscs, 89 species of non-caridean decapod crustaceans and 80 species of caridean shrimps, 228 species of fish and 19 barnacles were recorded. Potentially new species were found in several groups. The taxonomy of many of the groups collected is poorly known. Material was obtained for specialists in particular groups in Australia and overseas. The material has been sorted and sent to the specialists for examination and determination of species. This work is complex and time consuming, so it has not been possible to provide identifications for this report. However, the material is currently being worked up and will be presented in the scientific literature when it has been completed.

Many studies compare utilization of different marine habitats by fish and decapod crustaceans; few compare multiple vegetated habitats, especially using the same sampling equipment. Fish and invertebrates in seagrass, mangrove, saltmarsh, and nonvegetated habitats were sampled during May–August (Austral winter) and December–January (Austral summer) in the Barker Inlet-Port River estuary, South Australia. Sampling was undertaken using pop nets in all habitats and seine nets in seagrass and nonvegetated areas. A total of 7,895 fish and invertebrates spanning 3 classes, 9 orders, and at least 23 families were collected. Only one fish species, Atherinosoma microstoma, was collected in all 4 habitats, 11 species were found in 3 habitats (mangroves, seagrass, and nonvegetated), and 13 species were only caught in seagrass and nonvegetated habitats. Seagrass generally supported the highest numbers of fish and invertebrates and had the greatest species richness. Saltmarsh was at the other extreme with 29 individuals caught from two species. Mangroves and nonvegetated habitats generally had more fish, invertebrates, and species than saltmarsh, but less than seagrass. Analyses of abundances of individual species generally showed an interaction between habitat and month indicating that the same patterns were not found through time in all habitats. All habitats supported distinct assemblages although seagrass and nonvegetated assemblages were similar in some months. The generality of these patterns requires further investigation at other estuaries. Loss of vegetated habitats, particularly seagrass, could result in loss of species richness and abundance, especially for organisms that were not found in other habitats. Although low abundances were found in saltmarsh and mangroves, species may use these habitats for varying reasons, such as spawning, and such use should not be ignored.

Mangroves are considered to support rich assemblages of fish and invertebrates. Fishes inhabiting mangrove habitats and at various distances from mangroves across mudflats were sampled to: (1) compare fish assemblages between habitats; and (2) determine the influence of mangrove proximity on fish abundance and diversity in three southern Australian estuaries between November 2005 and January 2006. Based on their distribution, fish species were classified as mangrove residents, mudflat residents, generalists or rare species. The assemblage structure of fish in mangroves differed from assemblages 500m away; however, neither total abundance nor species richness differed significantly between mangroves and mudflats. Mangrove residents and Aldrichetta forsteri (yellow-eyed mullet) displayed strong associations with mangrove habitats, whereas mudflat residents were associated with mudflat habitats. No other fish groups or individual species occurred in higher abundances in either habitat. Total fish abundance, mangrove residents and A. forsteri were positively correlated with pneumatophore density, indicating that the structural complexity of the mangroves might influence the distributions of certain fish species. The current study demonstrated that mangrove habitats in temperate Australia support no greater abundance or diversity of fish than adjacent mudflat habitats and that mangrove proximity does not influence fish distribution at a habitat scale.

A total of 111 estuaries of moderate or large size were recognised around Tasmania and associated Bass Strait islands. The catchments of these estuaries were mapped using GIS, and available data on geomorphology, geology, hydrology and rainfall collated for each estuary and catchment area. Tasmanian estuaries were classified into nine groups on the basis of physical attributes that included salinity and tidal data collected during a field sampling program. Baseline information on the abundance, biomass and estimated production of macrobenthic invertebrate species was collected during a quantitative sampling program at 55 sites in 48 Tasmanian estuaries. These data were generally obtained at three different intertidal levels and two shallow subtidal depths at each site, and included information on a total of 390 taxa and over 100,000 individuals. Data on the distribution of 101 fish species, as obtained during surveys of 75 Tasmanian estuaries using seine nets by Last (1983) with some supplementary sampling, were also incorporated into the study.

Otter trawl survey of Northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia providing data on patterns of distribution and abundance of fish and invertebrate species. Surveys were done every April from 2000 to 2010.

Mesozooplankton community composition and structure were examined throughout the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Huon Estuary and North West Bay, Tasmania. The data represented by this record was collected as part of a grazing study conducted in Hideaway Bay, Huon Estuary (20-21 September, 2005). The grazing impacts of microzooplankton and mesoplankton on the phytoplankton communities were examined during several process studies. Experiments with mesozooplankton grazers were restricted to dominant omnivorous copepods (e.g. Acartia tranteri, Paracalanus indicus, Centropages australiensis) cladocerans and appendicularians. Grazing rates of microzooplankton reached as high as 96% of daily primary production, while that of mesozooplankton herbivours was never greater than 20%. Trophic interactions between the species are complicated by the recent arrival of the heterotrophic dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans to the region. This species grazes heavily on phytoplankton, smaller zooplankton and faecal pellets. Noctiluca scintillans accounted for up to 20% of mesozooplankton abundance in autumn and it is capable of both suppressing zooplankton abundance and reducing the sedimentation of faecal pellets to the seafloor.

The WA Museum with funding from Strategic Research Fund for the Marine Environment (SRFME) focused on documenting the fauna of the Central West Coast, Western Australia, specifically the diversity of fishes, molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms, scleractinian corals and sponges. The specific locations were Jurien Bay and Green Head localities with a focus on the Jurien Bay Marine Park, and Cervantes to the South and Dongara to the North.