Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater and fresh water together, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root brak. Certain human activities can produce brackish water, in particular civil engineering projects such as dikes and the flooding of coastal marshland to produce brackish water pools for freshwater prawn farming. Brackish water is also the primary waste product of the salinity gradient power process. Because brackish water is hostile to the growth of most terrestrial plant species, without appropriate management it is damaging to the environment.
Pandalus borealis is a species of caridean shrimp found in cold parts of the northern Atlantic and northern Pacific Oceans, although the latter population now often is regarded as a separate species, P. eous. The Food and Agriculture Organization refers to them as the northern prawn. Other common names include pink shrimp, deepwater prawn, deep-sea prawn, Nordic shrimp, great northern prawn, northern shrimp, coldwater prawn and Maine shrimp.
The Australian bass is a small- to medium-sized species of primarily freshwater fish found in coastal rivers and streams along the east coast of Australia. A member of the genus Macquaria from the family Percichthyidae, the Australian bass is an important member of the native fish assemblages found in east coast river systems. It is a native predatory fish and an extremely popular game fish species among anglers. The species was simply called perch in most coastal rivers where it was caught until the 1960s, when the name "Australian bass" started to gain popularity.
The hogchoker is a small species of flatfish found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North and South America, ranging from Massachusetts to Venezuela. They prefer brackish water, and are abundant in many bays and estuaries north of the Carolinas. It is a member of the American sole family Achiridae. They are usually brown to dark brown in color, and lighter on their "blind side". The overall body color is often broken by a series of spots and thin stripes, which can be lighter or darker than the main body color. The fins and tail have fringed edges helping hide the fish from its prey. They mainly feed on small aquatic insects and invertebrates. They are regarded as "trash fish" by recreational fishermen and were fed to pigs but they have rather bony bodies which were sometimes difficult for the pigs to swallow, hence the vernacular name.
The delta smelt is an endangered slender-bodied smelt, about 5 to 7 cm long, in the family Osmeridae. Endemic to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary of California, it mainly inhabits the freshwater-saltwater mixing zone of the estuary, except during its spawning season, when it migrates upstream to fresh water following winter "first flush" flow events. It functions as an indicator species for the overall health of the Delta's ecosystem.
Yaquina Bay is a coastal estuarine community found in Newport, Oregon. Yaquina Bay is a semi-enclosed body of water, approximately 8 km² (3.2 mi²) in area, with free connection to the Pacific Ocean, but also diluted with freshwater from the Yaquina River land drainage. The Bay is traversed by the Yaquina Bay Bridge.
The longfin smelt is a smelt that is found in several estuaries and lakes along the northern Pacific coast of North America.
The Pacific staghorn sculpin is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. This species is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the only species in the monospecific genus Lepidocottus.
The Pacific ladyfish, also known as the Pacific tenpounder and Machete, is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Elops, the only genus in the monotypic family Elopidae. The Pacific ladyfish can be found throughout the southwest U.S. and other areas in the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific herring is a species of the herring family associated with the Pacific Ocean environment of North America and northeast Asia. It is a silvery fish with unspined fins and a deeply forked caudal fin. The distribution is widely along the California coast from Baja California north to Alaska and the Bering Sea; in Asia the distribution is south to Japan, Korea, and China. Clupea pallasii is considered a keystone species because of its very high productivity and interactions with many predators and prey. Pacific herring spawn in variable seasons, but often in the early part of the year in intertidal and sub-tidal environments, commonly on eelgrass, seaweed or other submerged vegetation; however, they do not die after spawning, but can breed in successive years. According to government sources, the Pacific herring fishery collapsed in the year 1993, and is slowly recovering to commercial viability in several North American stock areas. The species is named for Peter Simon Pallas, a noted German naturalist and explorer.
The green sturgeon is a species of sturgeon native to the northern Pacific Ocean, from China and Russia to Canada and the United States.
The European flounder is a flatfish of European coastal waters from the White Sea in the north to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in the south. It has been introduced into the United States and Canada accidentally through transport in ballast water. It is caught and used for human consumption.
The Gobiiformes are an order of fish that includes the gobies and their relatives. The order, which was previously considered a suborder of Perciformes, is made up of about 2,211 species that are divided between seven families. Phylogenetic relationships of the Gobiiformes have been elucidated using molecular data. Gobiiforms are primarily small species that live in marine water, but roughly 10% of these species inhabit fresh water. This order is composed chiefly of benthic or burrowing species; like many other benthic fishes, most gobiiforms do not have a gas bladder or any other means of controlling their buoyancy in water, so they must spend most of their time on or near the bottom. Gobiiformes means "goby-like".
The San Francisco Estuary together with the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta represents a highly altered ecosystem. The region has been heavily re-engineered to accommodate the needs of water delivery, shipping, agriculture, and most recently, suburban development. These needs have wrought direct changes in the movement of water and the nature of the landscape, and indirect changes from the introduction of non-native species. New species have altered the architecture of the food web as surely as levees have altered the landscape of islands and channels that form the complex system known as the Delta.
Ostrea lurida, common name the Olympia oyster, after Olympia, Washington in the Puget Sound area, is a species of edible oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Ostreidae. This species occurs on the northern Pacific coast of North America. Over the years the role of this edible species of oyster has been partly displaced by the cultivation of non-native edible oyster species.
The violet goby is a species of goby native to marine, fresh and brackish waters near the Atlantic coast of North and South America from South Carolina in the United States of America, to northern Brazil. It prefers bays, estuaries and river mouths with muddy substrates. It is often marketed as the dragon goby or dragon fish.
The Atlantic needlefish is a common demersal needlefish species common in marinas and other areas with minimal currents. Its extremely long jaw and body set this fish apart from other predators. Atlantic needlefish are found from Maine to Brazil and have been known to venture into fresh water for short periods.
The Gulf flounder is a species of saltwater flounder.
The Suminoe oyster, is a species of true oyster which inhabits intertidal hard grounds and substrate, as well as muddy creeks of warm estuaries throughout the western Pacific. It is large and flat in appearance and almost identical in gross morphology to Crassostrea virginica.
Palaemon macrodactylus is a species of shrimp of the family Palaemonidae.
