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Supervising Scientist Division

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Download

• Freshwater Fishes of Kakadu National Park - part 1 (PDF - 5.44 MB)
• Freshwater Fishes of Kakadu National Park - part 2 (PDF - 5.74 MB)

About the document

This booklet is designed to give visitors to the region an insight into the rich diversity of the freshwater fishes of Kakadu National Park. The term 'freshwater fish' can be misleading. If we include all fish species that may be found in the freshwaters of the Park we would have about 60 species. Some of these are really marine species that wander into freshwater and can survive there for a while (marine vagrants), whilst some live in freshwater as a regular part of the life cycle but need to return to the estuaries to spawn (catadromous). Other species live and spawn in freshwater and all of these fish have marine ancestry, except for the saratoga which is the only true primary freshwater fish in the Northern Territory.

There are 31 species described here, many of which may be seen by visitors engaged in activities such as angling, or on boat cruises, watching at the waters edge of creeks, waterholes and road crossings, or the ultimate fish watching experience of donning a facemask and swimming in the crystal clear waters of the escarpment gorges and creeks.