ABSTRACT
In contrast to the tropics, relatively few marine gobioid fi shes live in the temperate regions of Australia and New Zealand and neighbouring islands. The marine fauna of this region is mostly confined within the Pacific Central-South Subtropical water mass, with New Zealand also being infl uenced by the southern Subtropical Convergence (Commonwealth of Australia 2006). In Australia, subtropical and temperate waters infl uence about half the continent’s fauna, with considerable overlap and intermixing of tropical and temperate faunas on the west and east coasts (Wilson and Allen, 1987). For example, the seasonal southward-fl owing Leeuwin Current of Western Australia brings tropical taxa to the southern coast of Western Australia, as exemplifi ed by the coral reefs and associated gobioid fi sh fauna of the Houtman Abrolhos Archipelago at 29°S (Hutchins, 1994, 1997).
