FRESHWATER FISH IN THE OTWAY REGION 
31 
ocity was high, and at site 7 were not present 
above steep rapids. Freshwater blackfish were 
found in some tributaries of the Gellibrand 
River but not in others having apparently suit¬ 
able blackfish habitats but subject to extremely 
heavy sedimentation (sites 49 and 50). 
Of the introduced species, only brown trout 
was widespread throughout the region, being 
particularly abundant in coastal streams where 
it was found at 60% of the sites. Only in the 
Parker River were brown trout absent from all 
three sites sampled. In the coastal streams only a 
few r specimens of the other three introduced 
species were caught: mosquitofish at site 12 (St 
Georges River below the Lome town water 
supply storage); two redfin, possibly escaped 
trom the stock in a local dam, at site 6 (Grassy 
Creek); and one rainbow trout at site 36 in the 
Aire River. 
The native fish fauna of the short coastal 
streams differs considerably from that of the 
Barwon and Gellibrand river systems. Fresh¬ 
water blackfish, Australian smelt, mountain gal- 
axias and southern pigmy perch were not found 
in any of the streams between Anglesea and 
Cape Otway (sites 4 to 29) although these species 
occurred in streams north of the Otway ridge 
and west of Cape Otway (Fig. 1). Southern 
pigmy perch were recorded in the Anglesea river 
by Atkins & Brourne (1982; cited in Raadik 
1986) but we could not confirm the occurrence. 
The mountain galaxias was found in the Parker 
River (site 32), and freshwater blackfish and 
Australian smelt were present in the Aire River 
system. Three large specimens of freshwater 
blackfish having a maximum size of 527 mm TL 
were collected at site 36 (Aire River). 
This species distribution is consistent with the 
findings of Renowden (1968) and with the local¬ 
ities of specimens in the Museum of Victoria. 
