In south eastern Australian estuaries we have collected Idiosepius notoides,
the southern pygmy squid, from dredge samples taken in seagrass beds. This
is an extremely cute species that grows to 2 cm long. (O.K. I tend to like
most animals, but 2 cm long squid really appeal to me.)
Fifteen years ago I work as an environmental biologist with the Queensland
Electricity Generating board We also collected cephalopods on the intake
screens. If anyone is interested I can get the names. The location of the
station was at Gladstone which is 100 km south of the tropics. The greatest
numbers of fish, non-plankton invertebrates particularly prawns including
the cephalopods were associated with fresh water in the river when I suspect
the animals show a reversal of their natural tendency to swim against the
current and were thus more susceptible to entrainment. This suggests to me
the cephalopods were not just incidental to the collections but were part of
the estuarine community.
Dr John Moverley, Museum of Victoria
Senior Research Scientist, Estuarine Health Project
PROJECT WEB PAGE : http://www.mov.vic.gov.au/ehealth/
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