The status of the fish populations of 8 North Florida rivers and their relationships to major quality parameters were explored in an effort to better understand potential effects of man's activities. Of the 10 water quality parameters analyzed, only conductivity, total dissolved solids and total nitrogen were found to have significant predictive capabilities for the total fish population Rivers in the Florida Panhandle, which are low in nutrients, pH and organic carbon and high in turbidity, support a high biomass of rough fish, a moderate biomass of sport fish, and a low biomass of commercial and forage fishes; however, numerically, these rivers are dominated by forage fishes. The rivers of northern peninsular Florida generally have equally high biomasses of rough and sport fishes and low biomasses of commerical and forage fishes; however, sport fishes dominate these rivers numerically, comprising more than 70% of all fish encountered.
