Comparison of the Catch Compositions of the Shrimp Beam Trawl Fishery in the Three Areas off the Southwestern Coast of Taiwan

Abstract

In order to compare the catch compositions of shrimp beam trawlers in the main fishing areas of the southwest Taiwan waters, the landed and discarded catches of 80, 62, and 93 hauls in three areas, area A (Putai to Chiku), area B (Tainan city), and area C (Tungkang) collected from the years of 1997 to 2000 were analyzed. There are 142, 105, and 118 species in area A, B, and C, respectively and ten of which can be found in the three areas all the year round. The dominant shrimp species in the three areas were Parapenaeopsis comuta, Metapenaeopsis barbata and M. barbata, respectively. P. comuta in area A; yet, it's insignificant in area C. Divershy indices showed that the area C had the highest species richness and diversity, and had more species evenness; whereas, the above situation in area B was on the contrary. The highest CPUE (g/(haul×hour)) of shrimp and finfish were found in area B, while that of crab, cephalopods and shellfish were in area C. With Duncan's test, shrimp and crab in area C were significantly different from the other two areas, and finfish was significantly different from areas A and C. The highest ratio of discarded shrimp and fish to all catch was in area C, and that of cephalopods was in area A. From this study, we found the catches of the shrimp beam trawlers in the shallow waters were more than those in the deep waters; yet, more dominant species were found in the deep waters.