FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 1 



Table 1— Fishes collected in Suisun Marsh, Solono County, CA, in decreasing order of 

 numerical abundance in our trawls. The principal environment of each species is coded as 

 follows: A = anadromous, E = estuarine, F = freshwater, M = marine. 



Species 



Numbers 



Origin 



Striped bass, Morone saxatilis 



Splittail, Pogonichthys macrolepidotus 



Threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus 



Tule perch, Hysterocarpus traski 



Prickly sculpin, Cottus asper 



Yellowfin goby, Acanthogobius flavimanus 



Sacramento sucker, Catostomus occidentalis 



Common carp, Cyprinus carpio 



Threadfin shad, Dorosoma petenense 



Staghorn sculpin, Leptocottus armatus 



Starry flounder, Platichthys stellatus 



Longfin smelt, Spirinchus thaleichthys 



Delta smelt, Hypomesus transpacificus 



American shad, Alosa spadissima 



Sacramento squawfish, Ptychocheilus grandis 



Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha 



Hitch, Lavinia exilicauda 



Inland silverside, Menidia beryllina 



Goldfish, Carassius auratus 



Northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax 



Sacramento blackfish, Orthodon microlepidotus 



Pacific herring, Clupea harengeus 



White catfish, Ictalurus catus 



Bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus 



Mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis 



Black crappie, Pomoxis nigromaculatus 



Bigscale logperch, Percina macrolepida 



White sturgeon, Acipenser transmontanus 



Fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas 



Brown bullhead, Ictalurus nebulosus 



Rainwater killifish, Lucania parva 



Green sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus 



Pacific sanddab, Citharichthys sordidus 



Pacific lamprey, Lampetra tridentata 



Surf smelt, Hypomesus pretiosus 



Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus 



Black bullhead, Ictalurus melas 



Shiner perch, Cymatogaster aggregata 



Golden shiner, Notemigonus crysoleucus 



Warmouth, Lepomis gulosus 



Rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri 



Longjaw mudsucker, Gillichthys mirabilis 



freshwater dominated portions of the estuary. The 

 marsh is also of considerable interest because it is 

 the largest brackish-water marsh in California. It is 

 managed primarily as a wintering area for migratory 

 waterfowl, but its importance as a nursery area for 

 striped bass, salmon, and other fishes is being in- 

 creasingly recognized (Baracco 1980). The purpose 

 of this paper is to analyze the distribution and abun- 

 dance of the fishes of the marsh in relation to each 

 other, major environmental factors, and major 

 crustacean species, during a 54-mo period. 



STUDY AREA 



Suisun Marsh is a large (ca 34,000 ha) tidal marsh 

 located just downstream of the confluence of the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers (Fig. 1). About 



11,000 ha of the marsh consist of sloughs that are 

 influenced by tidal action. The remainder consists 

 of diked wetlands managed to attract wintering 

 waterfowl (Baracco 1980) and for pasturage The 

 sloughs are shallow (most are <2 m deep) and may 

 fluctuate in depth as much as 1 m during extreme 

 tides. Salinities have ranged from to nearly 17 ppt 

 in recent years, with the highest salinities occurring 

 in late summer of drought years and the lowest 

 salinities occurring annually in winter and spring 

 when river outflows are highest (Baracco 1980). 

 Because increased upstream diversion of water is 

 threatening water quality in the marsh, major 

 modifications to the water distribution system within 

 the marsh are being made to ensure that salinites 

 do not become too high for production of the plants 

 that attract waterfowl. 



106 



