Catch composition and relative biomass of fishes caught by danish seine in Lingayen gulf

Abstract

The Lingayen Gulf is one of the major fishing grounds in the Philippines. The main clients of the fishing ground are the fishermen in the province of Pangasinan. The bulk of the catch of these fishermen are caught mainly using Danish Seine. Though there have been study conducted, related or succeeding studies were not undertaken so far. In the absence of updated studies, weundertaken a study to assess the catch composition and relative biomass of fishes caught by Danish seine. Two Sampling sites were selected, namely, Sector I (western Coast) and Sector III (eastern Coast). Two 45 HP commercial fishing vessels were utilized in the study in two sectors of the Gulf. Each vessel utilized modified Danish seine net and sampling was done every 15 days for a period of two months. The landed catch volume of every species were obtained from the fishing vessel’s logbook. Results showed that there were 38 species of finfishes belonging to 22 families identified in the two sectors (25 species in Sector I and 29 species in Sector III). Decapterus macrosoma yielded the highest catch for the whole sampling periods and the most dominant catch in Sector I, while Saurida tumbil in Sector III. Catch landings were higher in Sector I with 6,448.6 kg as compared to Sector III has 2,525.8 kg. Out of the 22 families identified, 14 of these were demersal while the remaining were pelagic. Two new families were identified in this study which not mentioned in the early studies. Due to the limitations of this study, further studies related on the growth by sexes and other important growth parameters of different species is recommended for better management of the Lingayen Gulf.