Underwater visual census has been conducted to reveal the recovery process of fish and invertebrate assemblages after the disturbance by tsunami. Ten replicates of 50m by 2m line transects were surveyed once in two months at four locations in and around Moune Bay, Kesennuma, northeast Japan for the last two and half years. Fish species richness and abundance increased rapidly for the first two years then stabilized. Relatively long-lived species such as rockfish and surfperch increased abundance in the third year. Burrows of mud shrimp became prevalent in two years after the tsunami concurrent with the increase of commensal gobies. Formation of macro-algal forest, and so the associated fauna, seemed highly dependent on the condition of bottom substrate, some of which had suffered heavily from the tsunami.
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