THE COMMERCIAL AND DISCARD CATCH RATES OF THE TRAWL FISHERY IN THE İSKENDERUN BAY (NORTHEASTERN LEVANTINE SEA)

Abstract

The management of fishery is significant due to the sustainability of marine resources. Therefore, the fishing areas should be constantly monitored. In this study, the fishery data were collected from the Iskenderun Bay (Northeastern Levantine Sea) with a rented commercial trawl vessel. The fishery-dependent data was recorded during the 2012-2013 fishing season with the help of the crew. 33 tows were achieved using a trawl net (codend diamond mesh size of 44 mm) for 26 hours. Each tow was limited with 70 min and the towing speed varied between 2.5 to 3.0 knots. The depth contour ranged from 39 to 69 m. While 32 species were evaluated as discard, 35 species were included in the landed catch. The total catch consisted of 67.2% the landed and 32.8% of the discarded fish in terms of CPUEW (catch per unit effort by weight).