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Fishes are the most abundant and diverse group of vertebrate animals and are a major component of marine ecosystems. Interactions between fish species, and between fishes and other marine animals and plants, are therefore important in defining the structure, diversity, and stability of ecosystems and for managing them effectively. Detennination of fish distribution and community structure are important first steps to improving our understanding and knowledge of marine ecosystems.

In New Zealand, general geographic distributions have been documented for many groups of species. Moreland (1959) briefly summarised the distributions of 253 shore fishes; Paulin & Stewart (1985) provided geographical ranges for about 700 marine teleosts; Ayling & Cox (1982) and Paul (1986) noted the general distribution of about 500 and 300 species, respectively, of fish and shellfish; Francis (1988) reported distributional …