Epibenthie fish larvae in the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon near Lizard Island,Australia

Epibenthic fish larvae near Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon were sampled with a plankton sled during daylight in November 1981 and January–February 1982. Abundance in the epibenthos was highly variable, and although many types of larvae were present, few were concentrated there relative to the water column. Among those taxa concentrated in the epibenthos, abundances were low and variances were high. Larvae of bregmacerotids, callionymids, clupeids, monacanthids, pinguipedids, platycephalids, pseudochromids, and especially schindleriids, leiognathids and terapontids were concentrated in the epibenthos. Few reef fish larvae were epibenthic. There was some evidence of diel and ontogenetic movements into and out of the epibenthos. Our limited sampling indicates that conventional midwater plankton sampling is adequate for most fish larvae found in the Lizard Island area, but for the larvae of the above ten families, this could produce large underestimates of abundance.