Dynamics of the Fish Community Structure in the Lithuanian Coastal Zone of the Baltic Sea on the Basis of the Monitoring Programme

Abstract

Coastal fish monitoring has been carried out in the Lithuanian zone of the Baltic Sea in the area to the north of Palanga since 1993. Investigations were performed annually using gill net series at fixed sites in July–August. Eighteen fish species were caught according to the monitoring programme. Coastal areas were dominated by diadromous vimba (Vimba vimba (L.)), the marine species Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras L.) and river flounder (Platichthys flesus (L.)). The comparison of experimental catches of different years revealed considerable changes in fish species composition, abundance and biomass. Catches of typical coastal fish species in experimental gears were considerably higher than those of recent years, e.g. the abundance of turbot (Psetta maxima (L.)) and river flounder in catches was found to be declining. Meanwhile catches of freshwater and diadromous fish species, such as perch (Perca fluviatilis L.), pikeperch (Sander lucioperca (L.)), vimba and twaite shad (Alosa fallax fallax (La...