Size selection by diamond and square mesh codends for the most commercial demersal fishes in the Gulf of Suez

Abstract

For the last decade, the stocks of the trawl fishery in the Gulf of Suez have been at a critically low level. Most fisheries in Gulf of Suez are conducted in a multispecies setting, where several different species, including lizardfish, threadfin bream, goat fish, yellow fin bream, striped piggy, goggle eye and horse- mackerel, are caught together. Bottom trawls account for the highest discard rates of juvenile fish, so the selectivity of a trawl refers to the ability to retain different sizes and species in the catch during a trawl based on the available aquatic population in the path where the trawl is towed. The goal of this study is to provide initial suggestions to improve the selectivity of trawl fishery of Gulf of Suez in order to reduce the catch discards and Juveniles of economically important species. To fulfill this goal, the following steps were performed 1- studied the current status of Gulf of Suez; 2- studied the selectivity analysis of seven species and discussed the biological studies of three Nemipterid Sp.

The results were as the following: