Schooling threadfin, a coastal species

Coastal fish (also called neritic or inshore fish) inhabit the waters near the coast and above the continental shelf. Since the continental shelf is usually less than 200 metres deep, it follows that pelagic coastal fish are generally epipelagic fish, inhabiting the sunlit epipelagic zone.^[1]

Coastal epipelagic fish are among the most abundant in the world. They include forage fish as well as the predator fish that feed on them. Forage fish thrive in inshore waters where high productivity results from upwelling and shoreline run off of nutrients. Some are partial residents that spawn in streams, estuaries and bays, but most complete their life cycle in the zone.^[2]

[edit] See also

• Pelagic fish
• Reef fish
• Freshwater fish
• Weever

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Moyle, PB and Cech, JJ (2004) Fishes, An Introduction to Ichthyology. 5th Ed, Benjamin Cummings. ISBN 978-0131008472

[edit] External links

• Marine Biology 2: Water layering and water movements

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