Changes in ichthyofaunal diversity and abundance within the Mbashe Estuary,Transkei, following construction of a river barrage

A three-year gill-net survey of the ichthyofauna of the Mbashe Estuary, conducted between 1980 and 1982, i.e. prior to the construction of a barrage on the river in 1984, was repeated during the period 1985–1988. The mean number of species caught per month, the mean total abundance of fish and the mean abundance of Mugil cephalus per sample decreased significantly after the construction of the barrage. The later period was characterized by high rainfall, but no significant changes in the salinity or transparency regime were recorded. The decline in total abundance of fish, and in M. cephalus in particular, may have occurred as a result of a depleted food web caused by the removal of silt and organic matter from the Mbashe Estuary by the severe flood of February 1985, the subsequent lack of replenishment as a result of retention of most of the suspended material by the barrage as well as the continued sediment scour of successive but less severe floods during the following years.