Stout Whiting - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

Stout whiting are endemic to Australia, and consist of two apparently disjunct populations; one on the eastern seaboard, the other on the western seaboard. The eastern population has a wider distribution, inhabiting waters from Bustard Head, Queensland to southern New South Wales. The western population exists from Shark Bay in the north to Fremantle in the south. In his 1985 revision of the Sillaginidae, McKay reported the species from as far north as the Gulf of Carpentaria, but did not mention any specimen from this far north in his follow-up catalogue for the FAO.

Stout whiting are found in deeper waters than other Australian sillaginids, inhabiting sandy substrates at depths of 10 to 70 m. juvenile fish of the eastern population inhabit shallower waters for the first year of life, often in large bays and near surf beaches. The fish of the western population spend their entire lives offshore. In northern Australia, the same offshore niche is occupied by the mud whiting, Sillago lutea. In southern Queensland, where it coexists in deeper waters with S. flindersi, the stout whiting shows preference for deep sandy strata with a riverine influence.