Publication Date
12-1993
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
From July 1981 to October 1982, fish numbers and biomass were surveyed in a mitigation marsh (now called Deadmouse Marsh or Park Street Marsh), to determine if the salt marsh restoration project successfully mitigated for habitat loss due to construction of a nearby marina. Survey results were compared to surveys of a nearby established marsh.. Fish use of channels adjacent to the mitigation marsh, control marsh, and Woodley Island Marina construction site, were also compared. The mitigation marsh, adjacent to Freshwater Slough channel, was 5.2 km from the marina site. Fishes were sampled by otter trawl, ichthyoplankton net, fixed channel nets, drop traps, and beach seines. Thirty-one fish species and two crab species were collected. Wide ranges in seasonal salinities and water temperatures, and differences in marsh elevation influenced fish use of the mitigation marsh area. The intertidal area of the mitigation marsh, dominated by euryhaline sticklebacks and topsmelts, did not replace intertidal and subtidal habitat lost by marina construction, which had more stable salinities and water temperatures and was used extensively by juvenile English sole.